drains

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of drain.

   Several drains along the alley were overflowing after the storm.

   The city inspects the storm drains twice a year to prevent flooding.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs: as a noun it counts the channels that carry liquid away, from a sink's outlet to a watercourse draining farmland. American and Canadian speakers call the opening in a sink or tub a drain, where British speakers say plughole and keep drain for rainwater outlets. The figurative plural works too (several drains on a budget), and an engineer's drains are transistor terminals. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of drain.

   The marsh drains naturally into the river during dry months.

   He drains the radiator each fall to keep it from freezing.

   Note

   The -s form switches between two patterns. With an object, someone empties or exhausts something: he drains the radiator, the work drains her. Without one, the container or the liquid itself becomes the subject: the sink drains slowly, the water drains away. Because the verb works both ways, a tank can be what someone drains or what drains on its own, so check which noun is doing the emptying.

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