- present participle of plumb.
noun
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Also called: plumbery. the trade or work of a plumber
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the pipes, fixtures, etc, used in a water, drainage, or gas installation
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the act or procedure of using a plumb to gauge depth, a vertical, etc
Etymology
Origin of plumbing
Explanation
Indoor plumbing is what makes civilization great. Plumbing refers to the pipes that get the water in and the sewage out. If a snake shows up in the toilet, it probably came in through the plumbing. Yikes! You can use the noun plumbing whether you're talking about the bathroom sink, the pipes connected to your dishwasher, or the bathtub drain. A home's heating system often consists of plumbing too. The work of fixing or installing this type of system is also plumbing. The word's earliest meaning was "the weighting of a fishing line," from plumb, originally "to sink like lead," which has the Latin root plumba, or "lead."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The property manager has got to know the age of the roof, the plumbing, the elevator. Ask for information surrounding the condo,” Lester told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
"Then we apply those techniques to these explosive eruptions, and we are able to reconstruct the plumbing system with an unprecedented precision."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
The attacks damaged the operational plumbing of finance: communications networks, settlement systems, trading records, clearing banks, exchanges, brokers and the people who made them work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
He painted bedrooms, took charge of the block’s recycling efforts and fixed countless plumbing problems.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Most of these have now left most of us, thanks to antibiotics, plumbing, civilization, and money, but we remember.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
