drainpipe

Noun

drainpipe (countable and uncountable, plural drainpipes)

1. A verticle pipe carrying water from the roof gutter down the side of a building; downspout.
   • He unlatched the window and stuck his head out — there was a drainpipe a couple of feet to the left but his room was on the second floor and it was too dark to tell whether the garden below was grass, soil, or paving.2004, Jan-Andrew Henderson, Secret City, →ISBN, page 65
   • We said earlier that we normally use a curved or bent piece of pipe at the top of the drainpipe where it is connected to the gutter, and a fitting at the bottom end of the drainpipe that directs the water into a channel or a drain or gully.2007, Peter Lague, FCS Construction Plumbing L3, →ISBN, page 155

   Synonyms:

   downspout, downpipe, leader

2. A conduit for carrying rainwater or flood water.
   • Where a lot owner knows that his premises will be flooded in case of a heavy rain, unless a certain city drainpipe in the street adjacent thereto is cleaned out, and gives no notice of it, and makes no effort to remedy the defect, he cannot recover of the city damages caused by flooding his...1895, The Southwestern Reporter - Volume 28, page 1048
   • She's in a drainpipe--right there," I said, pointing toward the hole in the side of the ditch.2009, Mary Louise DeMott, Mary Rumford, The Adventure of Lisa and the Drainpipe Prayer, →ISBN, page 86

   Synonyms:

   culvert, storm drain

3. A pipe that carries wastewater from a bathtub, shower, sink, etc.
   • First you should know that the size of the drain hole in the bottom of the sink is reflective of the drainpipe's diameter that has been standardized by the plumbing industry.1999, Peter King, Architectural Ceramics for the Studio Potter, →ISBN
   • A crude analogy is to liken this to water draining noisily from a bathtub. As the liquid falls down into the drainpipe, some of its swirling kinetic energy is converted into sound waves, water bashing against molecules of air.2012, Caleb Scharf, Gravity's Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos, →ISBN, page 80

   Synonyms:

   waste pipe

4. A pipe that is part of a device or appliance for carrying away waste fluid.
   • For years mechanical refrigerator salesmen have delighted in sticking their finger down inside the drainpipe of an ice refrigerator and drawing it out covered with slime, in an effort to demonstrate to the housewife that ice refrigeration is unclean.1934, Industrial Refrigeration - Volume 86, page 34
   • Attach the rubber tubing to the drainpipe of the ice chamber and place the end in a pail.1947, Albert Henry Andrews, Manual of oxygen therapy techniques
5. (uncountable) The type of pipe that is used to construct a drainpipe.
   • Hold a length of drainpipe vertically and stuff a loose wad of metal gauze up into the lower end.1979, R. E. D. Bishop, Vibration, →ISBN, page 52
   • . Buy enough unperforated, rigid plastic drainpipe for the job at a building supply center; also buy a 90-degree drainpipe elbow, drainpipe couplings, and any adapter available to join the drainpipe and downspout.1990, Time-Life Books, Basement and Foundation, →ISBN, page 85
6. A type of form-fitting trousers with highly tapered legs.
   • At the flick of a switch I would change mode and tart up in my new Toby, a horrendous copy of a Savile Row suit, waisted, with a twelve-inch vent at the back, drainpipe trousers and a rose in my buttonhole.2009, Mim Scala, Diary of a Teddy Boy: A Memoir of the Long Sixties, →ISBN, page 25
   • He was skinny, and wearing drainpipe jeans and a gothic Tshirt with the word 'VOMIT' in silver sparkly letters on black.2010, Sue Limb -, Girls, Guilty But Somehow Glorious, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   stovepipe, skinny jeans