plumbing

[ pluhm-ing ]

noun

1. the system of pipes and other apparatus for conveying water, liquid wastes, etc., as in a building.
2. the work or trade of a plumber. plumber.
3. act of a person who plumbs, as in ascertaining depth.

plumbing

/ ˈplʌmɪŋ /

noun

1. Also calledplumbery the trade or work of a plumber
2. the pipes, fixtures, etc, used in a water, drainage, or gas installation
3. the act or procedure of using a plumb to gauge depth, a vertical, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of plumbing¹

First recorded in 1660–70; plumb + -ing ¹

Example Sentences

According to McCauley, these regulatory developments are helping to initiate a major update to the country’s financial plumbing.

From Fortune

Renting, living in a mobile home and earning less than the local median income are all associated with plumbing problems.

From Washington Post

This is largely because the company’s focus is on providing back-end financial plumbing to other firms, including digital bank Revolut.

From Fortune

Mend all cracks in the walls, repair all plumbing and replace cracked tiles.

From Washington Post

Those patterns tell me there’s something wrong with the plumbing.

From Fortune

Co., Missouri Corporation that manufactures plumbing products.

From The Daily Beast

We lived in a tiny trailer that my mother had bought back in 1969, a trailer without running water or indoor plumbing.

From The Daily Beast

They found the building was a shell, with no apparently electricity or plumbing, and no completed inner construction.

From The Daily Beast

He put its science in simple terms  “Imagine you have clogged up plumbing due to debris,” Chatterjee said.

From The Daily Beast

Well, don't you know that there are people in the third world for whom indoor plumbing is but a fantasy?

From The Daily Beast

Even their housekeeping is no longer a disagreeable thing kept out of sight as much as possible, as the plumbing used to be.

From Project Gutenberg

The installation of the electric plant in a dwelling house is done in the same way, and as regularly, as the plumbing is.

From Project Gutenberg

But if dirty work was done to you, Burkett would have been a handier tool for Fogg than a Stillson wrench in a plumbing job.

From Project Gutenberg

Down in the room over the tin and plumbing shop in which I lived, I found it cold indeed.

From Project Gutenberg

Nobody came at her instant command to examine the plumbing and see that it was in order for the season.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• housewares