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• rose water
  rose water

  noun

  water tinctured with the essential oil of roses, used as a perfume and in cooking.
• rose-water
  rose-water

  adjective

  having the aroma or fragrance of rose water.

rose water

¹ American  

[rohz-waw-ter, ‐-wot-er] / ˈroʊzˌwɔ tər, ‐ˌwɒt ər /

Or rosewater

noun

1. water tinctured with the essential oil of roses, used as a perfume and in cooking.

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rose-water ² American  

[rohz-waw-ter, -wot-er] / ˈroʊzˌwɔ tər, -ˌwɒt ər /

adjective

1. having the aroma or fragrance of rose water.

2. affectedly delicate, nice, or fine; sentimental.

   a Victorian novelist with a genteel, rose-water style.

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rose-water British  

noun

1. 1. scented water used as a perfume and in cooking, made by the distillation of rose petals or by impregnation with oil of roses

   2. ( as modifier )

      rose-water scent

2. (modifier) elegant or delicate, esp excessively so

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Etymology

Origin of rose water¹

First recorded in 1350–1400

Origin of rose-water²

First recorded in 1655–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

rose water rose-water

The dough is then rolled into small balls, fried and soaked immediately in a warm syrup made from saffron threads and rose water.

From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2025

So Mr Jain decided to turn his roses into rose water and rose oil.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2023

In another scene, they dab Mama’s rose water on their wrists and imagine “that this is what Cleopatra or Nefertiti must have smelled like.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2023

Malabi is rose water milk pudding — delicate in flavor, firm but creamy, not too sweet — most often topped with a simple berry sauce and chopped pistachios.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 24, 2023

His mother offers them glasses of frothy pink lassi, thick and sweet-tasting, flavored with rose water.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Take a third of a pound of sugar, dissolve it with half an ounce of rose-water on a quiet fire, then take it up.

From Slate ● Nov. 16, 2011

They also make a species of nougat, from the manna found on the oaks on some of their mountains, mixed with chopped almonds and rose-water.

From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

And modern travelers in the East still find it a custom for visitors to be sprinkled with rose-water, or their head, face and beard "anointed with olive oil."

From The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

The Damask Rose was the only one ever used in careful families and by careful housekeepers for making rose-water.

From Old-Time Gardens Newly Set Forth by Alice Morse Earle

Up than spak the nut-browne bride, She spak wi' meikle spite;90 "And whair gat ye that rose-water, That does mak yee sae white?"

From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume II (of 8) by Various