plummet

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plummet

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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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈplʌmɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈplʌmət/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmɪt
• Hyphenation: plum‧met

plummet (plural plummets)

1. (archaic, nautical) A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 13, column 2:

     I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Isaiah 28:17:

     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.

   • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 21, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1844, →OCLC:

     Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight as any plummet line; […]

   • 1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter VI, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:

     And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone.

   • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A C McClurg, published March 1915, →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.

2. (archaic) Hence, any weight.
   • 1945, Ernie Pyle, Here Is Your War: Story of G.I. Joe, The World Publishing Company, page 93:

     His parachute was shot half away, and if he'd jumped he would have fallen like a plummet.

3. (archaic) A piece of lead formerly used by schoolchildren to rule paper for writing (that is, to mark with rules, with lines).
4. A violent or dramatic fall.
5. (figuratively) A decline; a fall; a drop.
   • 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC‎:

     Yet another seriously under-par performance is unlikely to provide any real answers to their remarkable plummet in form - but it proves they can at least churn out a much-needed result.

plummet (third-person singular simple present plummets, present participle plummeting or plummetting, simple past and past participle plummeted or plummetted)

1. (intransitive) To drop swiftly, in a direct manner; to fall quickly.

   After its ascent, the arrow plummeted to earth.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 151:

     The switchback road to Diabaig - pronounced 'Jer-vague' - passes through some of the most exhilarating scenery in Scotland. […] With a final swoop, the road plummets down into Diabaig, where cottages are dotted across the slopes of a rocky semi-circle.

   • 2022 October 4, Kate Conger, Lauren Hirsch, “Elon Musk Suggests Buying Twitter at His Original Price”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Some speculated Twitter’s stock would plummet, while another said the company would not have to be owned by “a moron,” using an expletive to refer to Mr. Musk.

   • 2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “No Marston Vale line trains... and no one in charge seems to 'give a damn'”, in RAIL, number 972, page 46:

     Passenger numbers had been rising sharply. But the replacement of the services by buses, which take far longer because of the number of stations in out-of-the-way villages on the route, will ensure they plummet again.

• (to drop swiftly): dive, drop, fall

• (antonym(s) of “to drop swiftly”): ascend, rise, rocket, soar, skyrocket

• plumb
• plumb line

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “plummet”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.