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plumb
1[ pluhm ]
noun
- a small mass of lead or other heavy material, as that suspended by a line and used to measure the depth of water or to ascertain a vertical line. Compare plumb line.
adjective
adverb
- in a perpendicular or vertical direction.
- exactly, precisely, or directly.
- Informal. completely or absolutely:
She was plumb mad. You're plumb right.
verb (used with object)
- to test or adjust by a plumb line.
- to make vertical.
- Shipbuilding. horn ( def 32 ).
- to sound with or as with a plumb line.
- to measure (depth) by sounding.
- to examine closely in order to discover or understand:
to plumb someone's thoughts.
- to seal with lead.
- to weight with lead.
- to provide (a house, building, apartment, etc.) with plumbing.
verb (used without object)
- to work as a plumber.
Plumb
2[ pluhm ]
noun
- J(ohn) H(arold), 1911–2001, British historian.
plumb
/ plʌm /
noun
- a weight, usually of lead, suspended at the end of a line and used to determine water depth or verticality
- the perpendicular position of a freely suspended plumb line (esp in the phrases out of plumb, off plumb )
adjective
- informal.prenominal (intensifier)
a plumb nuisance
adverb
- in a vertical or perpendicular line
- informal.(intensifier)
plumb stupid
- informal.exactly; precisely (also in the phrase plumb on )
verb
- troften foll byup to test the alignment of or adjust to the vertical with a plumb line
- tr to undergo or experience (the worst extremes of misery, sadness, etc)
to plumb the depths of despair
- tr to understand or master (something obscure)
to plumb a mystery
- to connect or join (a device such as a tap) to a water pipe or drainage system
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Derived Forms
- ˈplumbable, adjective
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Other Words From
- plumba·ble adjective
- plumbless adjective
- plumbness noun
- re·plumb verb (used with object)
- un·plumb adjective
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Word History and Origins
Origin of plumb1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of plumb1
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Idioms and Phrases
- out of / off plumb, not corresponding to the perpendicular; out of true.
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Example Sentences
He has no redeeming or (even complicating) qualities—no depths to plumb, no angles to survey, no gray areas to explore.
Nearly 65 years after the fact, it's amazing how much of what we think we know about Britain's "finest" hour is just plumb wrong.
In the “just plumb crazy” class, I put the business of his chaining his mug to the radiator to prevent its being stolen.
She believes her illness has bestowed on her a single-mindedness that causes her to plumb the same waters again and again.
Her companions stuck to the side of the road, but Suu Kyi walked into the middle, plumb in the line of fire.
Then, grandpaw, he turns round to the baby again, plumb took up with them four new nippers.
He put his hand to his belt, screwed up his mug, and said he felt plumb et up inside.
I just sit there, knocked plumb silly, almost, and looked at a big rose in the carpet.
An' I'm here t' declare that it's plumb foolish t' mix things with that layout till we can see t' shoot tolerable straight.
On either side of this isolated bar of sandstone a plumb-line might have been dropped straight to the level of the river.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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