drainpipe

Imagine a rainy day. Where does all that water go after it runs off your roof? Often, it flows into a drainpipe. A drainpipe is a pipe that carries water away, usually rainwater from a roof or dirty water from a sink or drain. You will often see one running down the side of a building as a metal or plastic pipe. It helps keep the building dry and protects it from water damage. The word is also used in fashion: drainpipes are very tight trousers with narrow legs.

A drainpipe is a pipe that carries away rainwater or other waste water. Many people first think of the pipe fixed to the outside of a building, taking rainwater down from the roof gutter to the ground drain. In American English, this outside pipe is often called a downspout. Its job is to move water safely away from the building so the walls, base, and ground around it are not damaged by heavy rain.

The word can also be used more generally for pipes that carry used water away from sinks, baths, or other drains. In homes, such pipes are part of the drainage system. On a larger scale, underground drainpipes help move waste water through towns and cities. Depending on where they are used, they may be made of plastic, iron, steel, or clay.

In fashion, drainpipe trousers, or simply drainpipes, are trousers with very narrow straight legs. This use became well known in the 1950s and is still understood today, especially when talking about older styles or very slim trousers. So the word usually points either to a pipe that carries water away or to a very narrow style of trousers.