plummet

CEFRB2

/ˈplʌmɪt/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
verb
To fall or decrease very quickly.
02
verb
Extra detail
Hence, any weight.

Examples

Sales will surely plummet without this change.
After its ascent, the arrow plummeted to earth.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5
Synonyms: 3

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.
A violent or dramatic fall.
A piece of lead formerly used by schoolchildren to rule paper for writing (that is, to mark with rules, with lines).

More examples

In context

I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded.
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.
His parachute was shot half away, and if he'd jumped he would have fallen like a plummet.

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When the bad news was announced, the company's stock price began to blank.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

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[war...
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

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Origin

verb

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.