plumb

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The vertical line is referred to as the plumb-line.

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Definitions (42)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (14)

  1. noun A weight on the end of a line, used to determine water depth.
  2. noun A weight on the end of a line, used especially by masons and carpenters to establish a true vertical.
  3. adverb In a vertical or perpendicular line.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (15)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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Examples (50)

  • The depths they're willing to plumb, the ugliness they're willing to display, the convictions of their delusion and the media saturation of it all is simply hypnotic - in the way a field mouse must feel when gazing into the eyes of a snake. —  THE STEEL DEAL
  • The vertical line is referred to as the plumb-line. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • But there were other signs--a pillar leaning out of plumb, a bit of railing sagging down, a board loose at the corner--which seemed to speak of the pluperfect tense. —  Days Off And Other Digressions
  • What we're getting is hell--plumb hell," exploded the Scotsman The other nodded Sure. —  The Heart of Unaga
  • "Wife an' boy an' baby all walk over me,--plumb stomp on me! —  The Christmas Miracle 1911
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This word has been looked up 152 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sanitation ·  fitting ·  fixture ·  appliance ·  drainage ·  tubing ·  conduit ·  toilet ·  ventilation ·  heater ·  insulation ·  pelosi

Used in the same contextWord Family

plumb:   plumbing ·  plumbed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, lead, a plumb, from Old French plomb, from Latin plumbum, lead.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. Early modern English also plomb; from Middle English plom, from Old French plom, plomb, Frenchplomb, lead, a plummet, = Provencal plom = Spanish plomo = Portuguese chumbo = Italian piombo, from Latin plumbum, lead (plumbum album or candidum, ‘white lead,’tin, plumbum nigrum, ‘black lead’), a leaden ball, a leaden pipe, a scourge with a leaden ball on the end of it; cf., Greek μόλυβος, μόλιβος, μόλυβδος, lead (see molybdena). Hence ult. (from Latin plumbum) English plummet, plumber, plump, plunge, plumbago, etc.
  2. An ellipsis of in plumb. Cf. plumb, adv.
  3. Formerly also plum; an adverbial use of plumb, n.; in part an ellipsis of in plumb. Cf. plump, adv.
  4. Formerly also plum; from plumb, n.
 

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/pləm/
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