Plumbing

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Plumb \Plumb\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Plumbed} (pl[u^]md); p. pr.
     & vb. n. {Plumbing} (pl[u^]m"[i^]ng).]
     1. To adjust by a plumb line; to cause to be perpendicular;
        as, to plumb a building or a wall.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. To sound with a plumb or plummet, as the depth of water;
        hence, to examine by test; to ascertain the depth,
        quality, dimension, etc.; to sound; to fathom; to test.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He did not attempt to plumb his intellect. --Ld.
                                                    Lytton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To seal with lead; as, to plumb a drainpipe.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. To supply, as a building, with a system of plumbing.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Plumbing \Plumb"ing\, n.
     1. The art of casting and working in lead, and applying it to
        building purposes; especially, the business of furnishing,
        fitting, and repairing pipes for conducting water, sewage,
        etc. --Gwilt.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The lead or iron pipes, and other apparatus, used in
        conveying water, sewage, etc., in a building.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  plumbing
       n 1: utility consisting of the pipes and fixtures for the
            distribution of water or gas in a building and for the
            disposal of sewage [syn: {plumbing system}]
       2: the occupation of a plumber (installing and repairing pipes
          and fixtures for water or gas or sewage in a building)
          [syn: {plumbery}]
       3: measuring the depths of the oceans [syn: {bathymetry}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  33 Moby Thesaurus words for "plumbing":
     accouterments, apparatus, appliances, appointments, appurtenances,
     armament, conveniences, duffel, equipage, equipment, facilities,
     facility, fittings, fixtures, furnishings, furniture, gear,
     impedimenta, installations, kit, machinery, materiel, munition,
     munitions, outfit, paraphernalia, plant, rig, rigging,
     stock-in-trade, tackle, things, utensils
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  plumbing n. [Unix] Term used for {shell} code, so called because of the
     prevalence of `pipelines' that feed the output of one program to the
     input of another. Under Unix, user utilities can often be implemented or
     at least prototyped by a suitable collection of pipelines and temp-file
     grinding encapsulated in a shell script; this is much less effort than
     writing C every time, and the capability is considered one of Unix's
     major winning features. A few other OSs such as IBM's VM/CMS support
     similar facilities. Esp. used in the construction `hairy plumbing' (see
     {hairy}). "You can kluge together a basic spell-checker out of
     `sort(1)', `comm(1)', and `tr(1)' with a little plumbing." See also
     {tee}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  plumbing
       
          (Unix) Term used for {shell} code, so called because of the
          prevalence of "{pipeline}s" that feed the output of one
          program to the input of another.  Under {Unix}, user utilities
          can often be implemented or at least prototyped by a suitable
          collection of pipelines and temporary file {grind}ing
          encapsulated in a {shell script}.  This is much less effort
          than writing {C} every time, and the capability is considered
          one of Unix's major winning features.  A few other {operating
          system}s such as {IBM}'s {VM/CMS} support similar facilities.
       
          The {tee} utility is specifically designed for plumbing.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1995-02-23)