Definition of naiad:

part of speech: noun

In anc. myth., a water- nymph; a female deity said to preside over rivers and springs.

Usage examples:

• It was not shaped in a classic mould, Not like a Nymph or Goddess of old, Or Naiad rising from the water, But modelled from the Master's daughter! Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in "The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow".

• Not daring to look up, she sat like one rebuked, with the music flowing over her lips like the slow water from the urn of some naiad of stone fountain. George MacDonald in "Weighed and Wanting".

• Tom Reese was a good friend, and a willing one, and his car had a tonneau capacious enough to accommodate the ex- naiad and her movable pool. Charles Weathers Bump in "The Mermaid of Druid Lake and Other Stories".

• Had the stream been a Naiad she could not have given him the go- by more coquettishly. Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch in "Merry-Garden and Other Stories".