waterworks

What it means

1. The water supply system of a district, town, city, or other place, including reservoirs, pipes, and pumps.
2. treated as singularAny single facility, such as a filtration plant or pumping station, within such a system.

   She is employed by a waterworks at the outskirts of the city.

3. figurativelyinformalOften in the form turn on the waterworks: crying or tears, especially in a way that is considered manipulative or over-emotional.

   She turned on the waterworks when we told her the old man was dead, but she was asking questions about the will soon enough.

In a sentence

She is employed by a waterworks at the outskirts of the city.

Where it comes from

From water + works (“machine, mechanism; factory or factories”).