Crossword clues for culvert
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Culvert \Cul"vert\ (k?l"v?rt), n. [Prob. from OF. coulouere, F. couloir, channel, gutter, gallery, fr. couler to flow. See Cullis.] A transverse drain or waterway of masonry under a road, railroad, canal, etc.; a small bridge.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1773, origin unknown, perhaps, as Weekley suggests, the name of a long-forgotten engineer or bridge-builder.
Wiktionary
n. A transverse channel under a road or railway for the draining of water. vb. To channel (a stream of water) through a #Noun.
WordNet
n. a transverse and totally enclosed drain under a road or railway
Wikipedia
A culvert is a structure that allows water to flow under a road, railroad, trail, or similar obstruction from one side to the other side. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom the word can also be used for a longer artificially buried watercourse. A structure that carries water above land is known as an aqueduct.
Culverts are commonly used both as cross-drains for ditch relief and to pass water under a road at natural drainage and stream crossings. A culvert may be a bridge-like structure designed to allow vehicle or pedestrian traffic to cross over the waterway while allowing adequate passage for the water. Culverts come in many sizes and shapes including round, elliptical, flat-bottomed, pear-shaped, and box-like constructions. The culvert type and shape selection is based on a number of factors including: requirements for hydraulic performance, limitation on upstream water surface elevation, and roadway embankment height.
The process of removing culverts, which is becoming increasingly prevalent, is known as daylighting. In the UK, the practice is also known as deculverting.
Usage examples of "culvert".
The brick wall and gateposts on the south side of the innyard had fallen inward, but the culvert under the entrance lane remained.
Rock stepped into the mouth of the culvert he saw a lumpy floor, which at first glance he thought consisted of rocks lying on dried mud.
They splashed up the creek to the culvert, retrieved their bicycles from the bushes, and went their various ways, after agreeing to meet at the same place after breakfast.
At the same time they destroyed a couple of culverts and tore up three hundred yards of the permanent way.
It was amazing to note the shattered culverts as one passed, and yet to be overtaken by trains within a day.
There were sections of the sewer in which light filtered down from above, through culverts, gratings, broken street stones, and other interstices.
During the day there were places in the sewer where illumination filtered down from above, tunnels close to the surface where culverts had broken through, others below streets where missing stones or open drains admitted daylight.
If they returned to the culvert to see if they could detect her scent in the cleaner air beyond the decomposing raccoon, she would be out of the downdraught that swept the main line, and they might not smell her.
There were no military vehicles in the cuds to back up patrols because too many had been taken out by culvert bombs.
Chrissie know that the culvert was about to collapse and fill with earth, squishing her as if she were a bug and trapping her forever.
At dawn, when the night retreats across the Pacific toward distant Asia, it is reluctant to go, leaving deep black pools in alleyways, under parked cars, in culverts, and beneath the leafy canopies of ancient oaks.
In the midst of the trees a shallow and apparently unnamed creek crossed the interstate in a box culvert.
Without hesitation the two men lifted the false floor and went below into the cool wet of the culvert.
The roadway was gullied in spots where flash floods had struck or culverts blocked, and some of the bridges were down, but it was still passable for wheeled traffic if you weren't in a tearing hurry.
One trooper was dead, but the corporal was bellied down in a culvert, and his M16's flash suppressor glowed incandescent as it spewed fire into the mob.