Plummet Meaning
/ˈplʌmɪt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.
nounHence, any weight.
Sentence Examples
Sales will surely plummet without this change.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the bad news was announced, the company's stock price began to ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Share prices began to ____ as soon as the company announced its unexpected quarterly losses.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English plommet (“ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line”), recorded since 1382, from Old French plommet or plomet, the diminutive of plom, plum (“lead, sounding lead”), from Latin plumbum (“lead”). The verb is first recorded in 1626, originally meaning “to fathom, take soundings", from the noun.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded."
— 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 13, column 2:
"Iudgement also will I lay to the line, and righteousnesse to the plummet: and the haile shall sweepe away the refuge of lyes, and the waters shall ouerflow the hiding place."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 28:17:
"Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight as any plummet line; […]"
— 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC:
"And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone."
— 1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter VI, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:
"He told her then of his life since he had returned to the jungle—of how he had dropped like a plummet from a civilized Parisian to a savage Waziri warrior, and from there back to the brute that he had been raised."
— 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg, published March 1915, →OCLC:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the bad news was announced, the company's stock price began to ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Share prices began to ____ as soon as the company announced its unexpected quarterly losses.