plumbing
part of speech
noun (plumbing, uncountable); verb form (-ing of «plumb»)
meaning for a pupil
1) Plumbing is the system of pipes, taps, toilets and drains that bring clean water into a building and take dirty water away. tree →
2) Plumbing is the job of putting in and fixing these pipes, done by a plumber. tree →
3) (informal, joking) Someone's plumbing can mean the inside of their body, especially the bladder or bowels. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and history lessons it shows how clean water and sewers stop disease; the Romans had lead pipes, and «plumbing» comes from the Latin word for lead, «plumbum». In everyday life, leaks and blocked drains are plumbing problems. Phrases: «indoor plumbing», «the plumbing is blocked», «fix the plumbing».
examples
- The old cottage had no indoor plumbing, so they used a well. tree →
- Water was dripping because the plumbing leaked. tree →
- My uncle does plumbing and fixes boilers. tree →
- Don't flush wipes; they block the plumbing. tree →
- Roman towns had surprisingly good plumbing. tree →
- Plumbing helped stop diseases like cholera spreading in cities. tree →
- When the plumbing froze in winter, we had no water. tree →
note
Uncountable: no «a plumbing», no «plumbings». The «b» is silent: «PLUM-ing». Same in «plumber». The chemical symbol for lead, Pb, comes from the same Latin word.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «plumbing» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.