in a perpendicular or vertical direction.
exactly, precisely, or directly.
Informal. completely or absolutely.
She was plumb mad. You're plumb right.
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.
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 )
in a vertical or perpendicular line
informal (intensifier)
plumb stupid
informal exactly; precisely (also in the phrase plumb on )
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
1250–1300; Middle English plumbe, probably < Anglo-French *plombe < Vulgar Latin *plumba, for Latin plumbum lead
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
When Emma Hayes took the reins of the women’s national soccer team in 2024, one of her first goals was to plumb the depths of the team’s talent pool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2026
Or maybe we’ll plumb new depths of dysfunction in the coming year.
From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2025
Woad has been given another plumb draw this week, alongside the last two champions Lilia Vu and Lydia Ko, who triumphed at St Andrews last year after winning gold at the Paris Olympics.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2025
“Do not let things get to you, Jane. Do not give in to your rage,” she’d always say, her voice full of warning and a knowledge I was afraid to plumb.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
Plumb came up with a new name for these areas: the "shuttered front", a string of constituencies with struggling High Streets that Power to Change think could play a pivotal role in future elections.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
Plumb launched a recruiting campaign with billboards around Boston and a pledge to match the in-state tuition of any state flagship university.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
About two years ago, St. Michael’s hired Richard Plumb as president.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Plumb did not attend his appeal hearing either in person or remotely from prison.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2025
Isaac Plumb had been commissioned and transferred to another company and Whitney was with the pioneers.
From Personal Recollections of the War of 1861 As Private, Sergeant and Lieutenant in the Sixty-First Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry by Fuller, Charles Augustus
He plumbs the lives of the family of William Henry Seward, one of the most consequential political men of pre-Civil War America, with a searching eye to the texture of their emotional world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
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
He plumbs the complicated blockchains and wallets and clarifies them for readers both interested in and weirded out by crypto.
From Slate ● Nov. 11, 2022
But the grapes, the plumbs, the pears, the peaches, the nectarines, and the cherries of France, have not their equal all the world over.
From Travels through the South of France and the Interior of Provinces of Provence and Languedoc in the Years 1807 and 1808 by Pinkney, Lt-Col.
There are, in fact, very few places where the 21st century intrudes, save for a flat screen TV or two and the kitchen’s plumbed, built-in Miele coffee system.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Her challenging books demand to be plumbed, debated, compared—and reread.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
A long-running survey of consumer confidence fell in November to a seven-month low and plumbed depths last reached during the covid crisis in 2020.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 25, 2025
Bunce joked that at least Joshua's fight with Paul still retains at least a semblance of credibility given boxers have plumbed to even further depths at times.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
As for the school: He alone knew where in Hogwarts he had stowed the Horcrux, because he alone had plumbed the deepest secrets of that place....
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Zoe, who lives in North Oxford, is now debt-free and completing a plumbing apprenticeship.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
As well as Mulan Build and 38fix, there is Diandian Home Solution, an all-women plumbing and furniture assembly service operating in the southern cities of Guangzhou and Kunming.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
Over the years, Duhamel has upgraded his cabin with a slew of amenities, including plumbing.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
The kitchen sinks aren’t working, and the plumbing is simultaneously screeching and groaning.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
We got running water now, and indoor plumbing, but my dad never seen no reason to tear down the old outhouse with the half-moon carved in the door.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
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.
