Sentence:  That absence of an urgent self-indulgence dashed them awake like a pail of <WSD>water</WSD> . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent