culvert

American  

[kuhl-vert] / ˈkʌl vərt /

noun

• culverts
  plural

1. a drain or channel crossing under a road, sidewalk, etc.; sewer; conduit.

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culvert British  

/ ˈkʌlvət /

noun

1. a drain or covered channel that crosses under a road, railway, etc

2. a channel for an electric cable

3. a tunnel through which water is pumped into or out of a dry dock

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• culverts
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of culvert

First recorded in 1765–75; origin uncertain

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Explanation

A culvert is a drain — but not the kind that drains your bathtub or empties your bank account. A culvert is any kind of channel or tunnel that directs unwanted water away from roads and other corridors of travel. A culvert is typically built underground to prevent inconveniently located streams and rain runoff from flooding roads, highways, streets, and railroads. Culvert can also be used as a verb: if water pools in your driveway and then seeps into the foundation of your house, soaking the brand-new carpet in the basement that you thought you’d just waterproofed, you might wonder why the builders didn’t culvert that underground stream.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

culvert culverts

The culvert once drained waste water from King James VI Hospital, which was built around 1749-1750 and was converted into flats in the 1970s.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

During an excavation last month, archaeologists and volunteers uncovered an 18th Century culvert that appeared to have been partly made using stone from the torn down monastery.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

Ducking into Maryam Lashkari, Hodjat Salimi and Oscar Tuazon’s interactive sculpture — an enormous cardboard tube lying on its side — feels like entering a culvert or a bomb shelter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

Hottle and another passenger were in a 1995 Honda Accord driven by a 19-year-old man when it veered off a two-lane highway and struck a culvert, according to Frederick County Sheriff's Office.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

He has slept on the ground; in a sewage culvert, curled up with other migrants; on top of gravestones.

From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario

Sometimes at the bottom of those undulations are culverts, or Department of Homeland Security vehicles will pop up.

From Slate ● Feb. 2, 2026

Human waste spilled out of the overflowing communal latrines near Nyariaka’s house and into the fetid water filling the culverts.

From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2025

While councils had spent heavily to repair and upgrade infrastructure in the wake of recent storms, the report found there were still issues with culverts in many places.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2025

One priority should be upgrading the Saturn Boulevard river crossing, he said, where the culverts create a small waterfall, to eliminate the churning water that spews pollution.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2025

Some found the sewer and some worked their way up the hill to the reservoir and some went into culverts and some only hid among the weeds in the vacant lot.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

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Related Words

• duct
• gutter
• pipe

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