Word.ws English Dictionary

water trough

water trough noun: a long trough placed between the rails in a railway track, which enabled a steam locomotive to replenish its water supply without stopping by lowering a scoop. They were removed at the end of steam train operation.

Noun

water trough (plural water troughs)

  1. (UK) a long trough placed between the rails in a railway track, which enabled a steam locomotive to replenish its water supply without stopping by lowering a scoop. They were removed at the end of steam train operation.
    • No water troughs are provided on any part of the Southern Railway. Even on the West of England and Bournemouth main lines, the tenders of the locomotives can carry sufficient water for the longest regular non-stop runs, such as London to Bournemouth (107.9 miles), London to Salisbury (83.8 miles)...1946 November and December, “The Why and The Wherefore: Water Troughs on the S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 391
    Synonyms:
    track pan
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see water, trough: a watering trough for livestock.

water trough meaning in Tamil

water trough in Tamil

தண்ணீர்த்தொட்டி, நீர்ச்சால், தொட்டி, நீர்ச்சாடி, கோளை, தோணி

Synonyms of water trough

Forms of water trough

pluralwater troughs
alternative formwater-trough
alternative formwatertrough

Origin of water trough

From Middle English water trouȝ, equivalent to water + trough. Cognate with West Frisian wettertroch (“water trough”), Dutch watertrog (“water trough”), German Wassertrog (“water trough”), Danish vandtrug (“water trough”), Swedish vattentrog (“water trough”).

Questions about water trough

What does water trough mean?
Water trough means a long trough placed between the rails in a railway track, which enabled a steam locomotive to replenish its water supply without stopping by lowering a scoop. They were removed at the end of steam train operation.
What is water trough in Tamil?
Water trough in Tamil is தண்ணீர்த்தொட்டி, நீர்ச்சால், தொட்டி. See Water trough meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is water trough?
Water trough is a noun.
What is the plural of water trough?
The plural of water trough is water troughs.

Words near water trough in the dictionary

  1. water towers
  2. water toxemia
  3. water tree
  4. water treeing
  5. water trees
  6. water trough
  7. water troughs
  8. water tube
  9. water tubes
  10. water tunnel
  11. water tunnels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: water trough (page history and authors); water trough (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “water trough.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/water_trough. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.