waterworks

Definition

The water supply system of a district, town, city, or other place, including reservoirs, pipes, and pumps.

Etymology

From water + works (“machine, mechanism; factory or factories”).

Example Sentences

• "She is employed by a waterworks at the outskirts of the city."
• "She turned on the waterworks when we told her the old man was dead, but she was asking questions about the will soon enough."
• "Resolving to possess myself in some quiet if it might be, in a time of so great jealosy, I built by my Brother's permission a study, made a fishpond, an island, and some other solitudes and retirements, at Wotton, which gave the first occasion of improving them to those water-works and gardens which afterwards succeeded them."