plummet
[pluhm-it]
- 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.
- something that weighs down or depresses.
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- to plunge.
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Origin of plummet
Synonyms
See more synonyms for plummet on Thesaurus.com3. fall, dive, drop, swoop.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for plummet
Contemporary Examples
Wind chills will plummet to around -20ºF on Friday for Hartford, Providence, and western Massachusetts.
Interest rates will soar, home values will plummet, stock markets will crash, and global economies will crater.
But it would be the quickest way for her to plummet in the approval of the Burmese masses.
Who heartlessly kicks Aziz Ansari into a hole, causing him to plummet to his death, instead of trying to save him?
That strategy was revealed as a loser when print advertising began to plummet, and fall, and then fall again.
Historical Examples
And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone.
White FangJack London
Oh, is there any plummet to sound the depths of a mother's love?
Debts of HonorMaurus Jkai
No plummet ever sank so deep as Jamie sank the thoughts of those few months.
Pirate GoldFrederic Jesup Stimson
Her singles were perfectly round, and as flat at the top as if laid with a plummet.
This line, with a plummet, is mentioned by Lucilius; and was the sund-gyrd of the Anglo-Saxons.
The Sailor's Word-BookWilliam Henry Smyth
plummet
- (intr) to drop down; plunge
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- another word for plumb bob
- a lead plumb used by anglers to determine the depth of water
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Word Origin
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
Word Origin and History for plummet
n.
late 14c., "ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line," from Old French plomet "graphite, lead; plummet, sounding lead," diminutive of plom "sounding lead" (see plumb (n.)).
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v.
1620s, "to fathom, take soundings," from plummet (n.). Meaning "to fall rapidly" first recorded 1933, perhaps originally among aviators. Related: Plummeted; plummeting.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper