wastewater

plural wastewaters · alternative waste water · alternative waste-water

1. countableuncountableAny water that has been used in some human domestic or industrial activity and, as a result, now contains waste products.

   Near-synonyms: sewage, sullage, graywater, blackwater, washwater, poop water (informal)

   3 more examples

   The commission's recommendations would require the removal of toxins and heavy metals from wastewaters that now run into regional rivers and New York Harbor untreated, and collect at their bottom.

   1976 September 10, Ronald Sullivan, “PROGRAM SHAPES UP ON HARBOR SLUDGE”, in The New York Times

   As the zoogleal slime reenters the wastewater, excess solids and waste products are stripped off the media as sloughings. These sloughings are transported with the wastewater flow to a settling tank for removal.

   2012, Frank Spellman, Revonna Bieber, Environmental Health and Science Desk Reference, page 831

   Flash forward to 2017, early in the Trump presidency. From the wastewaters of the internet, cryptic comments float up from an anonymous figure known only as Q.

   2023 February 20, Dwight Garner, “QAnon and the Fear and Loathing of an American Conspiracy Theory”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: sewage, sullage, graywater, blackwater, washwater, poop water