water fountain

English

Two metal drinking fountains

Noun

water fountain (plural water fountains)

1. A mechanical device designed to dispense small quantities of drinking water, usually in a public place such as a school or office.
   • 2020 March 11, “Network News: Water fountains cut plastic waste”, in Rail, page 23:

     Network Rail says the introduction of free water fountains at its managed stations has helped to save the equivalent of three million plastic bottles from entering landfill.

Synonyms

• drinking fountain
• bubbler (dialectal)

Translations

device designed to dispense drinking water

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 飲水機／饮水机 (zh) (yǐnshuǐjī)

• Dutch: drinkfontein (nl)
• Finnish: juoma-allas
• French: fontaine à eau (fr) f, abreuvoir (fr) m
• German: Trinkbrunnen m, Wasserspender m
• Navajo: tó háálínígi
• Spanish: fuente de agua f, fuente (es) f

References

• “water fountain”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Map of “bubbler, drinking fountain, water fountain” usage in the United States, Harvard Dialect Survey, Bert Vaux

Anagrams

• fountain water, fountainwater