plummet

[ pluhm-it ]
See synonyms for: plummetplummetedplummeting on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. Also called plumb bob. a piece of lead or some other weight attached to a line, used for determining perpendicularity, for sounding, etc.; the bob of a plumb line.

  2. something that weighs down or depresses.

verb (used without object)
  1. to plunge.

Origin of plummet

1
1350–1400; (noun) Middle English plommet<Middle French, diminutive of plomb lead; (v.) derivative of the noun See plumb, -et

Other words for plummet

Other words from plummet

  • un·plum·met·ed, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use plummet in a sentence

  • Birds sang in the trees while quail scurried across the road or took off in their short plummeting flights.

    Ticktock and Jim | Keith Robertson
  • Don had a glimpse of Professor Garet's machine plummeting down in the midst of most of Superior's vehicular population.

  • Bending over he seized the first of the gleaming cubes and hurled it over the edge of the crater, saw it start plummeting down.

  • Undaunted, he tried again, and again it happened—the stone went plummeting.

    The Beginning | Henry Hasse
  • "You'll see their power come plummeting to earth if I can work the machine," said John urgently.

    The Buttoned Sky | Geoff St. Reynard

British Dictionary definitions for plummet

plummet

/ (ˈplʌmɪt) /


verb-mets, -meting or -meted
  1. (intr) to drop down; plunge

noun
  1. another word for plumb bob

  2. a lead plumb used by anglers to determine the depth of water

Origin of plummet

1
C14: from Old French plommet ball of lead, from plomb lead, from Latin plumbum

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012