cesspool; night-soil reservoir; manure pit
A tank or pit for storing human waste, traditionally used as fertilizer in agriculture. Now mostly historical or rural.
Old farmhouses used to have a night-soil reservoir.
They spread the manure taken from the cesspit onto the fields.
Standard kanji spelling.
Search-only form; not a standard written variant.
Abbreviated kanji form; less common but still used.
Compound of 肥 (こえ, 'manure, fertilizer') and 溜め (ため, 'accumulation, reservoir'). The kanji 溜め is often written as だめ due to rendaku.