Other forms: sewers
A sewer is an underground pipe carrying a city's waste water away. The sewer system, blocked sewer, down in the sewers.
London's sewer network was built after the Great Stink of 1858 and much of it is still in use. Combined sewers carry both waste and rainwater, which is why heavy rain causes overflows into rivers. A fatberg is the mass of fat and wipes that blocks one. Note that sewer meaning a drain is pronounced SOO-er, while sewer meaning somebody who sews is pronounced SOH-er — the same spelling and no relation.
1nounsewerAn underground pipe carrying waste water away.
“The sewer under that street was laid in about 1867.”
synonyms: sewers, drain
sewer is a drainage pipe.
Also accepted in games: sewers
Old French sewiere meant an overflow channel for a fishpond, from a Latin phrase about carrying water off. The word has always meant a drain, and its resemblance to the sewing word is pure accident.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂ékʷeh₂
Latin
ex — out of, from
Vulgar Latin
*exaquāria — drain for carrying water off
Old French
sewiere — overflow channel for a fishpond
Anglo-Norman
sewere — water-course
Middle English
sewer
English, today
sewer
Built from
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”) + aquaria (“of or pertaining to waters”) or from a root exaquāre.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA