Artesian well

a well in which water rises under pressure from a permeable stratum overlaid by impermeable rock.
Historical Examples

We tried to remedy this defect by boring an artesian well, but all our attempts were unsuccessful.
As I Remember Marian Gouverneur

With some hesitation she at last alluded to the accident to the artesian well.
A Sappho of Green Springs Bret Harte

Well, I think you will have to fall back on the opening of the artesian well.
Messengers of Evil Pierre Souvestre

James located the first artesian well which was bored in Chicago.
Buchanan’s Journal of Man, March 1887 Various

Above it they found the service facilities—air-and-water plant; pumps for the artesian well; sewage disposal.
The Cosmic Computer Henry Beam Piper

The road in question leads from the city to the artesian well a few miles away.
The Short Line War Samuel Merwin

A chance glimpse of Kier’s label, with its picture of an artesian well, supplied Bissell with his answer.
The Age of Big Business Burton J. Hendrick

On the Gray ranch there is an artesian well which empties into a small pond about 100 feet square.
Our Vanishing Wild Life William T. Hornaday

The men there guarded an artesian well whose water spouted up like a fountain.
A Soldier of the Legion C. N. Williamson

He was a sort of artesian well of a man, and could not help spouting platitudes, that was all.
Miriam Monfort Catherine A. Warfield

noun
a well sunk through impermeable strata into strata receiving water from an area at a higher altitude than that of the well, so that there is sufficient pressure to force water to flow upwards

see artesian
artesian well
(är-tē’zhən)

A deep well that passes through impermeable rock or sediment and reaches water that is held under pressure in a confined aquifer. In aquifers of this type, the water in the lower regions is trapped between two layers of impermeable rock and cannot rise to the level of the water table in the upper, unconfined regions. When a well penetrates the confined region, the pressure forces the water to rise within the well until it reaches the elevation of the water table in the unconfined region (a level known as the potentiometric surface). ◇ In a flowing artesian well the water is under enough pressure to rise all the way to the surface without being pumped and must be capped to control the flow.