sewery

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From sewer +‎ -y.

Adjective[edit]

sewery (comparative more sewery, superlative most sewery)

  1. Resembling or characteristic of a sewer.
    • 1872 November 1, Philalethes, “Sanitary Matters. Sewer Gases Neutralized and Utilized.”, in Dr. Ruddock, editor, The Homœopathic World: A Monthly Magazine of Medical News, Literature, Cases from Practice, Social and Sanatory Science, and Correspondence, volume VII, London: Jarrold and Sons, []. The Homœopathic Publishing Company, [], page 253, columns 1–2:
      I will only add here one word of advice to my readers: never tolerate a sewery smell in any part of your house: you know not to what it may lead.
    • 1900, Thomas Anderton, A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham, page 5:
      Also how he saw a “brooke,” which was doubtless in his time a pretty little river, but which is now a sewery looking stream that tries to atone for its shallowness and narrowness by its thickness.
    • 1929, Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica, London: Chatto & Windus, page 258:
      The litter-strewn mud when the tide was out somehow offended them much less than the sewery water when it was up.
    • 1956, James Dugan, Man under the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, page 80:
      Once King James risked the crown on a voyage beneath the sewery river.
    • 1970, Partisan Review, page 365:
      He woke outside on the grass, on his stomach, his nostrils filled with an acid, sewery smell, and something was on top of him, crushing him, being lifted off for a second, then crushing him again.
    • 1986, Stephen King, It, Pocket Books, published 2016, →ISBN, page 1328:
      “These aren’t sewer-pipes, anyway,” Stan said from behind them. “You can tell by that smell. It’s bad, but it’s not a sewery smell.”
    • 1990, Susan Sullivan Saiter, Cheerleaders Can’t Afford to Be Nice, Donald I. Fine, Inc., →ISBN, page 122:
      Grandma’s was crowded and smelled of potpourri sachets and Christmassy dusting powder and the faint sewery smell from the bathroom it led to.