common sewer

English

Etymology

A punning allusion to shared drains for sewage. Compare drain (“a drink”).

Noun

common sewer (plural common sewers)

1. (UK, slang, archaic) A communal session of drinking alcohol.
   • 1869, Meliora, volume 12, page 47:

     When men go into a 'sluicery' for a 'sensation,' a 'drain,' or a 'common sewer,' they call the glass of gin they seek, in allusion to the juniper, a 'nipper,' or, more briefly, a 'nip,' occasionally a 'bite,' and not unfrequently it turns out a 'flogger.'

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary