plumb
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.
plumb
1 American
[pluhm]
/ plʌm /
noun
-
plumbs
plural
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)
-
plumbs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
plumbed,
past participle, past
-
plumbing
present participle
-
to test or adjust by a plumb line.
-
to make vertical.
-
Shipbuilding. horn.
-
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)
-
plumbs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
plumbed,
past participle, past
-
plumbing
present participle
idioms
Plumb
2
American
[pluhm]
/ plʌm /
noun
plumb
British
/ 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
adverb
-
in a vertical or perpendicular line
-
informal (intensifier)
plumb stupid
-
informal exactly; precisely (also in the phrase plumb on )
verb
-
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
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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plumbnessnoun
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replumbverb (used with object)
-
plumbableadjective
-
plumblessadjective
-
unplumbadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
plumbsimple
-
plumbssimple
-
have plumbedperfect
-
has plumbedperfect
-
am plumbingprogressive
-
are plumbingprogressive
-
is plumbingprogressive
-
have been plumbingperfect progressive
-
has been plumbingperfect progressive
Past
-
plumbedsimple
-
had plumbedperfect
-
was plumbingprogressive
-
were plumbingprogressive
-
had been plumbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of plumb
1250–1300; Middle English plumbe, probably < Anglo-French *plombe < Vulgar Latin *plumba, for Latin plumbum lead
Explanation
To plumb a body of water, you measure its depth. To plumb a house, you connect all of its pipes. To make carpentry plumb, you get it exactly vertical. Originally, the verb plumb only meant “to measure the depth of water.” These days, if you “plumb the depths” of something, you go in deep for knowledge and experience: your Heidegger seminar may plumb the depths of German Existentialism like Jacques Cousteau plumbed the depths of the ocean.
Vocabulary lists containing plumb
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Christopher Columbus' Diary: The First Voyage
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"The Odyssey," Vocabulary from Part 1 of the epic poem
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Amanda is enraptured with its aspirational luxury: “The house had that hush expensive houses do. Silence meant the house was plumb, solid, its organs working in happy harmony.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
Over nine months last year, the groups of artists met monthly on Zoom — “six countries and seven time zones,” says Rozental — along with therapists, scholars and others to plumb the topic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2026
Or maybe we’ll plumb new depths of dysfunction in the coming year.
From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2025
The 30-year-old set the tone early with a full delivery in his first over that had Young trapped plumb in front.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2025
“Marty,” Dad says, and now his voice is just plumb tired.
From "Shiloh" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Spielberg appeared at the event hosted by BBC Radio 1's film critic Ali Plumb at The Devonshire in Soho on Friday.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
Plumb championed a new emergency services major that has drawn wide student interest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Plumb and his faculty leaders weighed the cost to run courses against the enrollment and value for students.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Delivering the appeal judges' ruling, Lord Justice Edis said Plumb was "obsessed" with Ms Willoughby.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2025
If that definition is correct, Dr. Plumb is a superstitious man, because he believes at least without evidence.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 7 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Robert Green Ingersoll
Russo is a good guy, yes, and one for whom we root, but in his effort to protect his daughter, he plumbs seemingly bottomless depths of humiliation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
Never one to trawl the same waters twice, Cosby plumbs new depths in his latest, “All the Sinners Bleed,” by making its focus a man of the law.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
In keeping with its title, “Choreomaniacs,” which seems to pick up where “Revolver” leaves off, plumbs wilder depths.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
Among these some 300 pages are gems, including “Among the Trees,” by poet Carl Phillips, who plumbs the human connections that can be forged in a forest.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2023
They have also a kind of damsin plumbs, which they call famesta.
Japan, which imports most of its energy, is facing a double whammy of the higher oil prices that affect everyone and even higher prices in yen terms as the currency plumbed new depths.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Her 2022 debut novel, “Aesthetica,” plumbed the lengths one aged-out influencer is willing to go to reverse her cosmetic surgeries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
Labour is trailing in the polls and the prime minister's personal ratings have plumbed the depths.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
Right now, only some of the dancers in each of the two casts I saw plumbed the ballet’s depths.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
“It isn’t a proper holiday until we’ve plumbed every available sewer.”
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
With the narwhals plumbing the cold depths of the Arctic ocean, "we can sit at our warm offices and drink coffee while the data comes in," he added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
Her arc mirrored that of my Mexican immigrant parents, who were also mountain people who grew up in big farming families with no plumbing or electricity, snuggling with siblings during winter nights in unheated bedrooms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
The company saw gains in its plumbing, kitchen and gardening sections.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
Passengers described stifling conditions as well as problems with plumbing after paying thousands of pounds for European cruises, including on the Danube River.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
People all around us were fleeing to America: we heard tales of oranges the size of baking potatoes; fields of grain waving under sunny skies; clean, dry timber houses with indoor plumbing and electricity.
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
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.
