cesspit
/ˈsɛspɪt
/noun
1A pit for the disposal of liquid waste and sewage.When the great social reformer Lord Shaftesbury visited one house, he went into the cellar - where a family was living - and found that the sewage from a nearby cesspit had leaked right under their floor boards....
- Snow was now certain that the well had been contaminated with infected sewage - either from the sewer or the many nearby cesspits.
- Flood waters in the eastern regions of Trinidad have subsided, and clean-up crews have now begun clearing up overflowing cesspits and clogged waterways.
1.1A disgusting or corrupt place: the affair threatened to be a cesspit of scandal...
- He'd been part of political groups since he was 17, as London was ‘a big cesspit of corruption’ to him.
- Even at superstar level, most rock bands are cesspits of raging ego, petty bitterness, monstrous vanity, sordid self-abuse and very bad hair days.
- The religious fundamentalists who exercise such influence in some US states view the East and West coasts as cesspits of vice.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from cess (the supposed base of cesspool) + pit1.