sewer
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
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.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: so͞o'ə, IPA(key): /ˈs(j)uːə/
- (General American) enPR: so͞oər, IPA(key): /ˈsuɚ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (UK) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Homophone: suer
- Rhymes: -uːə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: sew‧er
Noun edit
sewer (plural sewers)
- A pipe or system of pipes used to remove human waste and to provide drainage.
- 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist[1], volume 411, number 8891:
- 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.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
pipes used to remove human waste and to provide drainage
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Verb edit
sewer (third-person singular simple present sewers, present participle sewering, simple past and past participle sewered)
- (transitive) To provide (a place) with a system of sewers.
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English seware, seuere, from Anglo-Norman asseour, from Old French asseoir (“find a seat for”), from Latin assidēre, present active participle of assideō (“attend to”), from ad (“to, towards, at”) + sedeō (“sit”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: so͞o'ə, IPA(key): /ˈs(j)uːə/
- (General American) enPR: so͞oər, IPA(key): /ˈsuɚ/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
- Hyphenation: sew‧er
Noun edit
sewer (plural sewers)
- (now historical) A servant attending at a meal who is responsible for seating arrangements, serving dishes, etc.
- 1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:
- 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.
- 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 287:
- His nephew Charles, meanwhile, had grown up in the royal household, working as a sewer, or waiter.
Etymology 3 edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sō'ə, IPA(key): /ˈsəʊə/
- (US) enPR: sō'ər, IPA(key): /ˈsoʊɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Homophone: sower
- Rhymes: -əʊə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: sew‧er
Noun edit
sewer (plural sewers)
- One who sews.
- 1890, Jacob A[ugust] Riis, “The Sweaters of Jewtown”, in How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, pages 131–132:
- 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.
- A small tortricid moth, the larva of which sews together the edges of a leaf using silk.
- the apple-leaf sewer, Ancylis nubeculana
Synonyms edit
- (one who sews): sempster/sempstress (man/woman), seamster/seamstress (man/woman), tailor, sewist
Translations edit
person who sews clothing
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Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Verb edit
sewer
- Alternative form of suren