soil pipe
- noun
- Specialized
:
tubería de desagüe
- After the storm, we found that the soil pipe had overflowed into the backyard.
Examples
-
It's important to maintain your soil pipe to prevent sewage backups in the home.
-
What is going on I wonder has the soil pipe got a a join?
-
The plumber inspected the soil pipe to ensure it was clear of blockages.
Synonyms
344
1.0
A long hollow tube that carries water, gas, or oil
9
2.5
A pipe that carries water away from a building, for example from the roof
A pipe that carries away dirty water from a sink or bath
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
soil + pipe
The headword 'pipe' clearly signals a conduit, but 'soil' normally means earth or dirt rather than human waste, so the specific meaning 'pipe that carries liquid sanitary waste' is not fully derivable from the parts. Because there is a partial link (dirtiness/soiled material relates to waste) but the sanitary sense is somewhat specialized and regionally lexicalized, a B1 learner who knows the constituents may only partially infer the correct meaning.
Etymology
The name soil pipe comes from older English where soil meant 'dirt' or 'human waste' and pipe is the tube that carries it away. So a soil pipe is simply a pipe that takes 'waste' or 'dirty water' from toilets to the drains, which explains the modern meaning.