sewer main
1
4.4
- noun
- /ˈsuːər meɪn/
- Specialized
:
conducto principal
- We have completed the new sewer mains, laid the pipes for the recycled watering of landscape, prepared the businesses, and will begin the actual undergrounding of the utilities shortly after the 2012 Fog Fest.
- a broken sewer main
Examples
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I don't know that they could easily be buried, given there's a gas main and a sewer main back there.
Blog text (1) -
As tax receipts dwindle, municipalities and states will no longer be able to meet the minimal maintenance requirements for existing infrastructure: roads, bridges, water and sewer mains, and so forth.
Blog text (26) -
Now, the drill accesses through a sewer main off Paris Drive.
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The work also has run into an old arched brick sewer main.
Blog text (8) -
Concentrate on the gas mains and the sewer mains.
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She also said the town had to wait nine months for the company to repair a sewer main and road after it punctured the main while laying natural gas lines.
Blog text (27) -
However, this effort was thwarted due to an inability to control non-authorized connections and infiltration problems associated with old sewer mains.
Academic text (1995) -
We can't even get the water and sewer companies to replace 100-year-old sewer mains and water lines because of the cost, and that stuff is already underground.
Blog text (4) -
Already a rapidly growing pipe replacement method for water and sewer main lines, pipe bursting now has found a niche in lateral replacement through recent equipment advancements.
Academic text (2002) -
A broken sewer main had turned the crossing into a lake of fetid water.
Synonyms
209
1.9
An underground pipe that carries away dirty water and waste
27
4.2
A large pipe that carries water, gas or sewage
7
2.5
A pipe that carries dirty water and waste from buildings to a place that cleans it
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'sewer' (a pipe for wastewater) modified by 'main' (the primary conduit), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes the principal sewer pipe. This follows a common noun–noun compounding pattern found across languages and is therefore immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The compound sewer main comes from a simple picture: sewer is a pipe for waste and main means the 'largest' pipe. Imagine one big underground pipe where many smaller pipes join and carry waste to the treatment plant, so sewer main means the main pipe that carries sewage.