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Drain vs Sewer - What's the difference?

drain | sewer |

As nouns the difference between drain and sewer

is that drain is a conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume while sewer is a pipe or system of pipes used to remove human waste and to provide drainage.

As a verb drain

is to lose liquid.

drain

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03, volume=101, issue=2, page=114, magazine=(American Scientist)
  • , author=Frank Fish, George Lauder , title= Not Just Going with the Flow , passage=An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex . The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain , as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.}}
  • An access point or conduit for rainwater that drains directly downstream in a (drainage) basin without going through sewers or water treatment in order to prevent or belay floods.
  • Something consuming resources and providing nothing in return.
  • (label) An act of urination.
  • (label) The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
  • Derived terms

    * circle the drain * down the drain * drain fly

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To lose liquid.
  • The clogged sink drained slowly.
  • To flow gradually.
  • The water of low ground drains off.
  • (ergative) To cause liquid to flow out of.
  • Please drain the sink. It's full of dirty water.
  • (ergative) To convert a perennially wet place into a dry one.
  • They had to drain the swampy land before the parking lot could be built.
  • To deplete of energy or resources.
  • The stress of this job is really draining me.
  • To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to exhaust.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Fountains drain the water from the ground adjacent.
  • * Motley
  • But it was not alone that he drained their treasure and hampered their industry.
  • (obsolete) To filter.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Salt water, drained through twenty vessels of earth, hath become fresh.
  • (pinball) To fall off the bottom of the playfield.
  • * 1990 , Steven A. Schwartz, Compute's Nintendo Secrets
  • When a ball finally drains , it's gulped down by a giant gator beneath the set of flippers.

    Derived terms

    * drainage * drain the lizard (vulgar)

    Anagrams

    *

    sewer

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia sewer) (en noun)
  • A pipe or system of pipes used to remove human waste and to provide drainage.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=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.}}

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) asseour, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A servant attending at a meal, 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 2012, p. 287:
  • His nephew Charles, meanwhile, had grown up in the royal household, working as a sewer , or waiter.

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who sews.
  • A small tortricid moth whose larva sews together the edges of a leaf by means of silk.
  • the apple-leaf sewer , Phoxopteris nubeculana
    Synonyms
    * (one who sews) sempster/sempstress , tailor