soakaway

plural soakaways

1. UKA deep hole used for drainage, where rainwater and other wastewater drains directly into the ground, without connection to any mains drainage or sewerage pipes.

   These trenches, you know, are much deeper than one's height; you don't see anything. It's like walking along a mud-walled passage. Every now and then some one stumbles into a soakaway for rainwater.

   1916, H. G. Wells, chapter 9, in Mr. Britling Sees It Through