plumb line
a cord with a lead bob attached to one end, used to determine perpendicularity, the depth of water, etc.: Compare plumb (def. 1).
Origin of plumb line
1Words Nearby plumb line
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use plumb line in a sentence
They worked with simple plumb lines and slates for recording depths and satchels full of explosives for destroying obstacles.
How unruly, knife-wielding swimmers became the first Navy SEALs | David Philipps | December 5, 2021 | Popular-ScienceWhen I took down the remaining wallpaper in preparation for new wallpaper, I came across all her notes, measurements and marks for plumb lines.
It’s not a matter of if. The walls in these houses do talk, through hidden messages. | John Kelly | September 21, 2021 | Washington PostOn either side of this isolated bar of sandstone a plumb-line might have been dropped straight to the level of the river.
Overland | John William De ForestSupports of dressed stone truly fixed with the plumb line are perfectly stable of themselves.
A history of art in ancient Egypt, Vol. I (of 2) | Georges PerrotDæd´alus is also mentioned as the inventor of the axe, plumb-line and augur.
The Student's Mythology | Catherine Ann White
Titiens then in a formal manner laid the first brick, using the plumb-line to ascertain that the work had been properly done.
The Mapleson Memoirs, vol I | James H. MaplesonHe found a magnetic ridge line running approximately parallel to the line of no deflection of the plumb line.
British Dictionary definitions for plumb line
a string with a metal weight at one end that, when suspended, points directly towards the earth's centre of gravity and so is used to determine verticality, the depth of water, etc
another name for plumb rule
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
Scientific definitions for plumb line
[ plŭm ]
A line regarded as directed exactly toward the Earth's center of gravity.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Browse