Meaning

(archaic, nautical) A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line..

Definitions by Sense

1. (archaic, nautical) A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.
2. (archaic) Hence, any weight.
3. (archaic) A piece of lead formerly used by schoolchildren to rule paper for writing (that is, to mark with rules, with lines).
4. A violent or dramatic fall.
5. (figuratively) A decline; a fall; a drop.
6. (idiomatic, intransitive) To drop swiftly, in a direct manner; to fall quickly.

Example Sentences

I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded.

Iudgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousnesse to the plummet: and the haile shall sweepe away the refuge of lyes, and the waters shall ouerflow the hiding place.

Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight as any plummet line; […]

And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone.

He told her then of his life since he had returned to the jungle—of how he had dropped like a plummet from a civilized Parisian to a savage Waziri warrior, and from there back to the brute that he had been raised.

His parachute was shot half away, and if he'd jumped he would have fallen like a plummet.

Yet another seriously under-par performance is unlikely to provide any real answers to their remarkable plummet in form - but it proves they can at least churn out a much-needed result.

After its ascent, the arrow plummeted to earth.

Word Forms

• plummets
• plummeting
• plummetting
• plummeted
• plummetted

Synonyms for plummet

Antonyms for plummet

Related Words

When Should You Use Plummet?

Use plummet when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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