culvert

English

A culvert draining into a small river.

Etymology

Obscure. A number of possibilities have been suggested: 1) a dialectal word; 2) a word related to the name of the now-forgotten inventor; 3) a derivation from Tamil கல்வெட்டு (kalveṭṭu, “inscription”) (கல் (kal, “stone”) + வெட்டு (veṭṭu, “cut”) cut stone), a Tamil term for a carved stone bridge allowing passage of a stream below; 4) a derivation of (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French couvert (“covered”), although couvert is not used in this sense and the French translation of culvert is "ponceau" or "buse de drainage"; and 5) a derivation from an unrecorded (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Dutch word, possibly *coul-vaart, equivalent to coul- from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French -- compare couler (“to flow”) + vaart (“a trip by boat, a canal”).

Noun

culvert (plural culverts)

1. A transverse channel under a road or railway for the draining of water.
   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Vintage Classics, paperback edition, page 91

     A raft of twigs stayed upon a stone, suddenly detached itself, and floated towards the culvert.

   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, Virago Press, paperback edition, page 167

     After she left, I ran away for a day, and hid myself, solitary, in a culvert under the railway lines.

Translations

channel for draining water

• Bulgarian: водосток (bg) m (vodostok)
• Czech: propustek (cs) m
• Dutch: duiker (nl) m, grondzijl f, verlaat (nl) n, zinker (nl) m
• Finnish: siltarumpu (fi)
• French: ponceau (fr) m, drain (fr), buse (fr)
• German: Düker (de)
• Hungarian: vízátvezető cső (hu), áteresz (hu)
• Ido: ponteto (io), ponto (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: karawata
• Polish: przepust (pl) m
• Portuguese: galeria de drenagem f, passagem hidráulica f
• Russian: водопропускная труба f (vodopropusknaja truba)
• Spanish: cloaca f, tajea (es)
• Swedish: trumma (sv) c, vägtrumma (sv) c
• Tagalog: alkantarilya
• Westrobothnian:

Verb

culvert (third-person singular simple present culverts, present participle culverting, simple past and past participle culverted)

1. To channel (a stream of water) through a culvert.

References

• “culvert”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.