cesspool

[ses-pool]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR cesspool ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a cistern, well, or pit for retaining the sediment of a drain or for receiving the sewage from a house.

any filthy receptacle or place.

any place of moral filth or immorality: a cesspool of iniquity.

RELATED WORDS

cesspit, sump

Nearby words

Origin of cesspool

1575–85; cess (< Italian cesso privy < Latin rēcessus recess, place of retirement) + pool¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for cesspool

On another, more macro level, did you find Europe to be such a cesspool of intrigue?
How The Cold War Endgame Played Out In The Rubble Of The Berlin Wall|William O’Connor|November 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The vote on Sunday could take Ukraine toward a modern functioning democracy or plunge it back into a cesspool of corruption.
Ukraine’s Wild and Wooly Elections|Anna Nemtsova|October 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It allows me to stomach the pathetic shenanigans of the cesspool of Washington, D.C.
Roland Martin: America, You Can’t Handle the Truth!|Roland S. Martin|January 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In the cesspool of cynicism that is Indian politics, we thought his train ride struck a blow instead for a degree of idealism.
How Rahul Gandhi Blew the Indian Rape Crisis|Dilip D’Souza|January 19, 2013|DAILY BEAST

It's perpetuating a cesspool on Facebook for those who would perpetuate real world violence and rape.
Should Facebook Ban Sexist Pages?|Jessica Bennett|November 5, 2011|DAILY BEAST
It seems, in fact, to be a sort of horrible beast made for the night which has just been torn from its cesspool.
Les Misrables|Victor Hugo
It's possible to live; but you want brains and a lot of cleverness in order not to sit down in the cesspool at once.
Mother|Maksim Gorky
If a giant had filtered this cesspool, he would have had the riches of centuries in his lair.
Les Misrables|Victor Hugo
We picked our way back to the fire, avoiding the dung-heap and pig-stye, whereby we nearly fell into a cesspool.
The Luck of Thirteen|Jan Gordon
At the lower end of the trough have a waste pipe which runs into a cesspool.
Campward Ho!|Unknown

British Dictionary definitions for cesspool

cesspool

cesspit (ˈsɛsˌpɪt)

noun

Also called: sink, sump a covered cistern, etc, for collecting and storing sewage or waste water

a filthy or corrupt placea cesspool of iniquity

Word Origin for cesspool

C17: changed (through influence of pool 1) from earlier cesperalle, from Old French souspirail vent, air, from soupirer to sigh; see suspire

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cesspool

cesspool

also cess-pool, 1670s, the first element perhaps an alteration of cistern, perhaps a shortened form of recess [Klein]; or the whole may be an alteration of suspiral (c.1400), "drainpipe," from Old French sospiral "a vent, air hole," from sospirer "breathe," from Latin suspirare "breathe deep" [Barnhart]. Meaning extended to "tank at the end of the pipe," which would account for a possible folk-etymology change in final syllable.

Other possible etymologies: Italian cesso "privy," from Latin secessus "place of retirement" (in Late Latin "privy, drain"); dialectal suspool, from suss, soss "puddle;" or cess "a bog on the banks of a tidal river."