catch basin

American  

noun

1. a receptacle, located where a street gutter opens into a sewer, designed to retain matter that would not readily pass through the sewer.

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catch basin British  

noun

1. Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): catch pit.  a pit in a drainage system in which matter that might otherwise block a sewer is collected so that it may periodically be removed

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Etymology

Origin of catch basin

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

He thanked members of the California National Guard for clearing debris out of a catch basin that was constructed after the mudslide in order to divert rain.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 13, 2023

Russell Banks’ ‘The Magic Kingdom’ finds a man explaining why he sold his land to Disney and why Florida is ‘a catch basin for the world’s detritus.’

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2023

For nearly two decades, Carroll Academy, a one-hallway school set in the one-story wing of a former hospital, has been a catch basin for teenagers slipping through society’s cracks.

From New York Times • Jul. 25, 2013

Just 40 feet long, it had been dug between the church and a hole cut in the side of an underground drainage pipe connecting a nearby rainwater catch basin to the Grand tunnel.

From BusinessWeek • Aug. 2, 2012

It was about this time, too, that I paid a man four dollars to clean out the catch basin in the rear of our premises.

From The House An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife, Alice by Field, Eugene