Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1759 (in an account of the Battle of Lagos in "Universal Magazine," September), from water (n.1) + log (n.); the notion apparently is of "reduce to a log-like condition." \n\nWATER LOGGED, the state of a ship when, by receiving a great quantity of water into her hold, by leaking, &c., she has become heavy and inactive upon the sea, so as to yield without resistance to the efforts of every wave rushing over her decks. As, in this dangerous situation, the center of gravity is no longer fixed, but fluctuating from place to place, the stability of the ship is utterly lost. She is therefore almost totally deprived of the use of her sails, which would operate to overset her, or press the head under water. Hence there is no resource for the crew, except to free her by the pumps, or to abandon her by the boats as soon as possible.
[William Falconer, "An Universal Dictionary of the Marine," London, 1784]
\nThe verb waterlog (1779) appears to be a back-formation.Wiktionary
a. 1 soaked with water 2 (context nautical English) in danger of sinking because of excess water onboard
WordNet
adj. soaked with moisture; "a soggy lawn"; "the flood left waterlogged fields" [syn: soggy]
Usage examples of "waterlogged".
Soon their garments were steaming in the heat, and the marram grass had ceased to be waterlogged.
Amsel, and she alone, whom he is permitted at this point to excerpt from the village idyl, for she is the mother of our plumpish Eduard Amsel, who in the course of the first to fourth morning shifts fished beanpoles, roofing laths, and heavy waterlogged rags from the rising Vistula and is now, like Walter Matern, about to be baptized.
Eugenio has submitted all the requisite papers for a new passport and local visa, has bought him two new silk suits and a handsome woolen Tyrolean duffle coat with a felt borsalino to match, as well as a pair of green knee-high rubber boots to splash about in, has provided him with liniments, medicines, toiletries, and even a wonderful old-fashioned cotton sleeping cap, and has replaced the cracked waterlogged shoes he came here in with three new pairs, custom made from the softest hand-tooled Venetian leather, remarking as he threw out the old ones that they reminded him of those strange stiff shoes made out of tree bark that he used to wear to school.
On the beach beside the cofferdam there were several piles of rusted junk, waterlogged wood, and other debris grappled up from the depths of the Pit, cleared for their expedition.
Farley soothed, defogging his glasses with a waterlogged handkerchief.
When she drew it out from under her waterlogged jerkin, she saw a small gleam in its heart, a circling of pallid light around the opened flowerlet caught there.
Although our Ostrogoths were handicapped by waterlogged armor and numbed limbs, they so heavily outnumbered the Gepids that they likewise fought off their assailants, then threw them backward.
Once the skiff crew began boarding, drawing all the reavers aft, five waterlogged Manitou sailors managed to swim around to the bow and clamber aboard, using loops of dangling, cable.
Nah Ree, the youth named Yao Che managed to ground his increasingly waterlogged raft on a sandbar, where it turned end for end, dumped him into the shallows, and took off for parts unknown.
Raccoon fished for crawdads and perched at the edge of the water like black-masked bandits searching out their prey beneath rocks and waterlogged driftwood.
Then as he was crossing the Tinna River near Falernum, he was ambushed by six legions of Picentes under Gaius Vidacilius, and was obliged to fight a waterlogged defensive action which gave him no room to maneuver.
Unsuccessful in duplicating the discovery of Gold Seekers Ltd., these companies used newly designed pumps in concert with randomly placed underwater charges in an attempt to seal and drain the waterlogged island.
She untied the waterlogged thongs that held her currying basket to her back and shrugged it off, then took out a heavy aurochs hide and a sturdy branch stripped of twigs.
So many tunnels were dug that a good part of the island is waterlogged and unstable.
Its feathers were so waterlogged, the primitive, short-tailed bird made it only as far as the top of a nearby shrub, where it spread wings to dry in the manner of cormorants or anhingas.