sewer

Inside an underground sewer (etymology 1)

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: so͞o'ə, IPA^(key): /ˈs(j)uːə/
• (General American) enPR: so͞oər, IPA^(key): /ˈsuɚ/

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• Audio (UK)

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• Homophone: suer
• Rhymes: -uːə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: sew‧er

sewer (plural sewers)

1. 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, 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.

sewer (third-person singular simple present sewers, present participle sewering, simple past and past participle sewered)

1. (transitive) To provide (a place) with a system of sewers.

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”).

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: so͞o'ə, IPA^(key): /ˈs(j)uːə/
• (General American) enPR: so͞oər, IPA^(key): /ˈsuɚ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Hyphenation: sew‧er

sewer (plural sewers)

1. (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.

sew +‎ -er

A sewer (Etymology 3) in Dhaka

• (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

sewer (plural sewers)

1. 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.

2. A small tortricid moth, the larva of which sews together the edges of a leaf using silk.

   the apple-leaf sewer, Ancylis nubeculana

• (one who sews): sempster/sempstress (man/woman), seamster/seamstress (man/woman), tailor, sewist

• Ewers, Weser, ewers, re-sew, resew, sweer, weres

sewer

1. Alternative form of suren