Definition of "water main" [water main]

• A principal pipe in a system of pipes for conveying water, especially one installed underground. (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.

• "My curiosity aroused, I picked out two other men, also mysteriously engaged: the one on his knees beside a water main or access point of some nature, and the other in the act of shinning up a telegraph pole, a task for which he appeared to need neither rope nor ladder, thus incidentally putting Penelope's personal trainer, who fancies himself quite the Tarzan, in the shade where he belongs."
• "A water main had burst, necessitating a rip-up job with an oversized backhoe, blocking traffic on State Street, right next to one of the stops on the new light-rail train."
• "Just before the real estate market imploded, Land Tejas installed a water plant on the east side of the freeway and a 16-inch water main running west from that plant to its site."