Definition of "piscina" [pis•ci•na]

• Ecclesiastical A stone basin with a drain for carrying away the water used in ceremonial ablutions. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "She passed over a large square opening and wondered if it could be a fish tank, what the ancients called a piscina."
• "On the large tablet above the piscina is a punning motto, _Temperantia te Temperatrice_, the person commemorated being Richard Tryce, 1767."
• "The overflow from the octagonal basin passes into a long narrow piscina, which is entered by steps at either end."