a pipe clogged like sausage

[JACEK1]

Hello again,

What do you call a situation when a sink pipe is completely clogged. We say that It is clogged like sausage.

What is your opinion?

Sausage is very tightly compacted, so there is no free flow through it.

 

[Yankee]

I get the picture! :-o

 

[GoesStation]

The Polish idiom is nicely evocative, but it won't be understood in English. Some Googling found a 1934 Popular Science article that described an engine crankcase breather tube that was "clogged ... tighter'n a corked bottle," which works well but isn't commonly used as far as I know. Reading that reminded me that I once experienced a problem much like the one described in the article: my old garden tiller slowed, then stopped, because its clogged breather caused pressure to build up in the crankcase until it balanced the pressure exerted by the expanding gas in the cylinder.

 

[JACEK1]

I think it is enough to say "a sink pipe is completely clogged" or maybe someone has other suggestions.

 

[GoesStation]

That works for me. In other news, you'll be pleased to know that I was able to pop the plastic breather out of the tiller engine's crankcase with my pocketknife and clear the clog with a twig. I never had to leave the row it died in. I was impressed by how little compression that engine had -- it wasn't enough to overcome a plastic snap.

 

[tedmc]

This is the first time I hear blockage in a pipe being compared to a sausage, being in the building line. A sausage is a flexible tube mind you, unlike a sink pipe. I think you have described it succinctly as "completely clogged" as distinct from "partially clogged".

 

[emsr2d2]

This is the first time I have heard of a blockage in a pipe being compared to a sausage, despite my being in the building line. A sausage is a flexible tube, mind you, unlike a sink pipe. I think you have described it succinctly as "completely clogged" as distinct from "partially clogged".

See above.

 

[GoesStation]

Come to think of it, you may sometimes hear that something is stuffed like a sausage. The examples I find describe overfull airplanes, a famous American President wearing clothes that are too small, and people who have overeaten.

 

[tedmc]

See above.

Isn't the present tense (hear) also acceptable?
I know "despite" adds emphasis to express the opposite, but I think the sentence is OK without it.

 

[GoesStation]

Isn't the present tense (hear) also acceptable?

Not in the context of post #6.

 

[Tdol]

You can also say blocked.

 

[Skrej]

I'm just making this up (as opposed to it being a known expression), but you could say something like 'Clogged worse than my arteries after a bbq buffet", or "clogged like a heart-attack waiting to happen". There would be countless variations on how to express similar.

I'd imagine those would evoke some pretty graphic images.