cesspool

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an underground pit or sealed chamber used to collect sewage and waste water

   The old cottage drained into a cesspool behind the garden wall.

2. 2
   noun

   figurative: a place or situation marked by extreme corruption, filth, or degradation

   The report described the prison as a cesspool of violence and corruption.

From earlier sesspool; the first element is uncertain and may reflect Italian cesso, 'privy,' or an English dialect word for mud or a puddle. Association with pool helped establish the modern form. The figurative sense compares moral corruption with accumulated sewage.

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