Dictionary

sewery en · ADJ

Etymology

From sewer + -y.

Meanings

1. Resembling or characteristic of a sewer.
   • Grandma’s was crowded and smelled of potpourri sachets and Christmassy dusting powder and the faint sewery smell from the bathroom it led to. 1990, Susan Sullivan Saiter, Cheerleaders Can’t Afford to Be Nice, Donald I. Fine, Inc., →ISBN, page 122:
   • 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. 1900, Thomas Anderton, A Tale of One City: The New Birmingham, page 5:
   • The litter-strewn mud when the tide was out somehow offended them much less than the sewery water when it was up. 1929, Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica, London: Chatto & Windus, page 258:
   • 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. 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:
   • 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. 1970, Partisan Review, page 365:
   • Once King James risked the crown on a voyage beneath the sewery river. 1956, James Dugan, Man under the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, page 80:
   • “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.” 1986, Stephen King, It, Pocket Books, published 2016, →ISBN, page 1328:

Forms