ébouer

An old and now rare verb meaning to clean mud (boue) off something — mostly of historical interest today because it's the root of éboueur, the everyday word for a garbage collector, even though the verb itself has largely fallen out of use.

• Autrefois, on ébouait les rues à la pelle. — In the past, streets were cleared of mud with a shovel.
• Ce verbe est à l'origine du mot éboueur. — This verb is the origin of the word éboueur (garbage collector).
• On ne l'emploie presque plus aujourd'hui. — It's almost never used today.

Don't confuse with the modern job title éboueur, which now means "garbage collector," not "one who removes mud" — the meaning has drifted well past this verb's original sense.