sewer
nounverbnounnouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈs(j)uːə//
- United Kingdom//ˈsəʊə//
- United States//ˈsuɚ//
- United States//ˈsoʊɚ//
A pipe or channel, or system of pipes or channels, used to remove human waste and to provide drainage.
noun
- 1
A pipe or channel, or system of pipes or channels, used to remove human waste and to provide drainage.
There was a blockage in the sewer after an item of clothing was flushed down the toilet.
One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
Etymology
From Middle English sewer, seuer, from Anglo-Norman sewere (“water-course”), from Old French sewiere (“overflow channel for a fishpond”), from Vulgar Latin *exaquāria (“drain for carrying water off”), from Latin ex (“out of, from”) + aquāria (“of or pertaining to waters”) or from a root *exaquāre.
verb
- 1
To provide (a place) with a system of sewers.
noun
- 1
historicalAn official in charge of a princely household, also responsible for the ceremonial task of attending at dinners, seating the guests and serving dishes.
While the Saxon was plunged in these painful reflections, the door of their prison opened, and gave entrance to a sewer, holding his white rod of office.
His nephew Charles, meanwhile, had grown up in the royal household, working as a sewer, or waiter.
Etymology
From Middle English seware, seuere, from Anglo-Norman asseour, from Old French asseoir (“find a seat for”), from Latin assidēre, present active infinitive of assideō (“attend to”), from ad (“to, towards, at”) + sedeō (“sit”).
noun
- 1
One who sews.
Up under the roof three men are making boys’ jackets at twenty cents a piece, of which the sewer takes eight, the ironer three, the finisher five cents, and the buttonhole-maker two and a quarter, leaving a cent and three-quarters to pay for the drumming up, the fetching and bringing back of the goods.
- 2
A small tortricid moth, the larva of which sews together the edges of a leaf using silk.
the apple-leaf sewer, Ancylis nubeculana
Etymology
sew + -er
Forms
- plural
- sewers
- past tense
- sewered
- past participle
- sewered
- present participle
- sewering
- third person singular
- sewers
sewer · A pipe or channel, or system of pipes or channels, used to remove human waste and to provide drainage.
sewing · The action of the verb to sew.sex · A category into which sexually-reproducing organisms are…sexist · Unfairly discriminatory against one sex in favour of the…