sinker

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One that sinks, as a weight used for sinking fishing lines or nets.
2. n. Slang A doughnut.
3. n. Baseball A sinkerball.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who or that which sinks or causes to sink. Particularly A weight attached to a fishing-line to make it sink in the water. In bottom- or bait-fishing, sinkers of various sizes and shapes are used, the weight being proportioned to the tide or current. Split shot, closed on the line, are very commonly used as sinkers.
2. n. In knitting-machines, stocking-frames, etc., one of several flat pieces of metal attached to the jacks, and also to the sinker-bar, and serving to form loops in the thread between the needles. See jack, 11 , sinker-bar, and knitting-machine.
3. n. A cesspool.
4. n. A hollow sinker containing shot, that may be adjusted to any required weight.
5. n. A sinker with spiral rings, which can be put on and taken off the line without disturbing the hook or bait.
6. n. Same as dead-head, 4.
7. n. A heavy dumpling or doughnut; a dough-sinker; a dough-boy.
8. n. A (silver) dollar.
9. n. See the extract.

Wiktionary

1. n. fishing A weight used in fishing to cause the line or net to sink
2. n. baseball Any of several high speed pitches that have a downward motion near the plate; a two-seam fastball, a split-finger fastball, or a forkball
3. n. construction Sinker nail, used for framing in current construction.
4. n. slang A doughnut; a biscuit.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A weight on something, as on a fish line, to sink it.
2. n. In knitting machines, one of the thin plates, blades, or other devices, that depress the loops upon or between the needles.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a weight that sinks (as to hold nets or fishing lines under water)
2. n. a small ring-shaped friedcake
3. n. a pitch that curves downward rapidly as it approaches the plate