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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Plumb \Plumb\, verb (used with an object) [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.
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.
He did not attempt to plumb his intellect. --Ld. Lytton.
3. To seal with lead; as, to plumb a drainpipe.
4. To supply, as a building, with a system of plumbing.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Plumbing \Plumb"ing\, noun
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.
2. The lead or iron pipes, and other apparatus, used in conveying water, sewage, etc., in a building.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
plumbing
noun
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)
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