The invention relates to a distributor body that is capable of incrementally advancing relative to a flat housing surface, for a water distributor, a sealing arrangement of said distributor body resting on a mating surface of the housing. According to the invention, shifting means bring about a shift of the distributor body away from the mating surface during part of an incremental advancing step, thereby ensuring the ease of incremental advance and reducing wear in the region of the sealing arrangement and the mating surface.