water tube
- noun
- /ˈwɔːtər tuːb/
- Specialized
:
tubo de agua
- During maintenance, they checked the water tube for any leaks or corrosion.
Examples
-
She pulled two water tubes from the storage rack and handed him one.
Fiction book (1996) -
During the visit, the team found that many of the water tube wells were out of order and that the inmates of the camps were bringing water from far-off places.
Academic text (1997) -
The technician replaced the damaged water tube in the boiler to restore its heating efficiency.
-
To produce steam, water circulates through the water tube inside the heating system.
Synonyms
680
2.0
A long hollow thing like a pipe that carries liquids or gases, sometimes inside the body
344
1.0
A long hollow tube that carries water, gas, or oil
22
2.7
A long hollow pipe that carries liquids, gases, or small objects
6
1.0
A tube that carries water into a house or building
A tube in a boiler that carries water to make steam
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound meaning is directly built from 'water' (H₂O) and 'tube' (a hollow cylinder): a tube intended for or containing water. Although used in a technical boiler context, the semantic composition is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer its meaning.
Etymology
The noun water tube comes from a simple, literal idea: it is a tube that holds water inside a boiler so the heat can turn it into 'steam'. That's why the term means the pipe where water moves and is heated.