Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See plumb bob.
- n. Something that weighs down or oppresses; a burden.
- v. To fall straight down; plunge.
- v. To decline suddenly and steeply: Stock prices plummeted.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A piece of lead or other metal attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water, determining the vertical, etc.
- n. An instrument used by carpenters, masons, and others in adjusting erections to a vertical line; a plumb-rule.
- n. The pommel or knob on the hilt of a sword.
- n. A weight.
- n. A piece of lead formerly used by school-boys to rule paper for writing.
- To weight with plummets, or as with plummets.
Wiktionary
- n. archaic A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water.
- n. archaic A plumb bob or a plumb line.
- n. archaic Hence, any weight.
- n. archaic A piece of lead formerly used by school children to rule paper for writing
- n. a plummet line, a line with a plummet; a sounding line.
- n. Violent or dramatic fall
- n. figuratively decline; fall; drop
- v. intransitive To drop swiftly, in a direct manner; to fall quickly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water.
- n. A plumb bob or a plumb line. See under Plumb, n.
- n. Hence, any weight.
- n. A piece of lead formerly used by school children to rule paper for writing.
WordNet 3.0
- v. drop sharply
- n. the metal bob of a plumb line
Etymologies
- From Old 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. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English plomet, from Old French, ball of lead, diminutive of plom, plomb, sounding lead, from Latin plumbum. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Church invented nothing new of her own when she began to extol Mary; she did not plummet from the worship of the one God to the praise of man.”
“We don't normally use the word plummet but that is the operative word right now," said Mr. Ward.”
The Wall Street Journal: States' Revenue Sinks Amid Income Tax Drop-Off
“The other factor causing military morale to plummet is President Bush's preemptive war in Iraq, which has been followed by a post-war period of no planning that has placed our soldiers in harm's way without hope.”
Sound Politics: Voter registration ruling was based on bogus evidence
“Theoretically, all of the male reindeer - or at least the qualified ones - get together once a year to pull Santa's sleigh, and I assume they have training sessions to make sure that none of them suddenly plummet from the air in a burning hunk of fur and venison.”
“[...] continued plummet is just so damn frustrating.”
“Complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls plummet ACMA”
Do Not Call Violation Complaints Declining | Lifehacker Australia
“I was sitting at home on a Sunday reading the New York Times, and there on the front page was a headline that said "Reagan's popularity plummets to 59 per cent: 'So right there I said:" There is the fundamental difference between Canada and the United States - language: 'The word plummet obviously does not mean the same thing here as it does in the.”
“If people stop buying stuff, suddenly sales tax collection plummet, which is exactly what happened.”
“To capture their growth, you need to be willing to buy into them when their valuations plummet, which is usually when some kind of economic crisis strikes.”
“+3.47% shares have epitomized the notion of plummet.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘plummet’.
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Visuals
A list of words which yield surprising, beautiful, amusing, or otherwise noteworthy images here on Wordnik.
photochrom, fufluns, thank you, cool l..., postcard, picture postcard, cricket, physiological ill..., Gakuryū Ishii, ametropia, One Froggy Evening, rhodopsin, Santiago Calatrava and 636 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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GRE
predilection, explicit, appeal, supplication, appealing, enchanting, ovation, pertinent, apropos, opportunely, applicable, germane and 381 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 521 more...
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P
letters starting with p
predicament, presumptuous, predilection, plausible, preeminent, plaintive, paragon, partisan, pathological, paucity, pedantic, penchant and 28 more...
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Dan’s Reading List
Memo to myself: Read these definitions and comments.
Memo to everyone else: Thanks for adding, by the way—I do very much appreciate it. I try to move things from here to my bookmark...moist, yarb, theodolite, fufluns, plummet, crepuscular, twist, pique, umbrage, the united states..., smeath, new interface and 9 more...
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Formerly
Being a list of words with definitions containing the word "formerly."
formerly, armorer, link, plummet, brank, pall-mall, florin, quondam, erstwhile, imponderable, recant, ether and 32 more...
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GRE list #4
runic, sagacious, salacious, salient, salutary, sanctimony, sanguine, satiate, saturnine, seine, seminal, sidereal and 103 more...
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Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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English
rewarding, wit, landmark, core, soar, drop, plunge, plummet, dive, level off, rocket, peak and 110 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 1008 more...
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vozcelik's Words
cranny, tummy, nook, sinister, cajole, frugal, chafe, wimp, booger, patriarchy, indifference, mire and 162 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for plummet.
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