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# plumbing

«plumbing» in Mova's school dictionary: **the system of pipes, taps, toilets and drains that bring…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#m1)

2) Plumbing is the job of putting in and fixing these pipes, done by a plumber. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#m2)

3) (informal, joking) Someone's plumbing can mean the inside of their body, especially the bladder or bowels. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#m3)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#x1)
- Water was dripping because the plumbing leaked. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#x2)
- My uncle does plumbing and fixes boilers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#x3)
- Don't flush wipes; they block the plumbing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#x4)
- Roman towns had surprisingly good plumbing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#x5)
- Plumbing helped stop diseases like cholera spreading in cities. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#x6)
- When the plumbing froze in winter, we had no water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/#x7)

### 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plumbing/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.