water fountain

English

Two metal water fountains

Noun

water fountain (plural water fountains)

1. (US, Canada) A mechanical device designed to dispense small quantities of drinking water, usually in a public place such as a school or office.
   • 2020 March 11, “Network News: Water fountains cut plastic waste”, in Rail, page 23:

     Network Rail says the introduction of free water fountains at its managed stations has helped to save the equivalent of three million plastic bottles from entering landfill.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see water,‎ fountain.

Synonyms

• drinking fountain
• bubbler (dialectal)

Translations

device designed to dispense drinking water

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 飲水機／饮水机 (zh) (yǐnshuǐjī)

• Dutch: drinkfontein (nl)
• Finnish: juoma-allas
• French: fontaine à eau (fr) f, abreuvoir (fr) m
• German: Trinkbrunnen m, Wasserspender m
• Navajo: tó háálínígi
• Spanish: fuente de agua f, fuente (es) f

References

• “water fountain”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Map of “bubbler, drinking fountain, water fountain” usage in the United States, Harvard Dialect Survey, Bert Vaux

Anagrams

• fountain water, fountainwater