plumb

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plumb¹

  • /plʌm/
  • /plʊm/ Northern England

Sounds like plum · Rhymes with -ʌm

Where it comes from

From Middle English plumbe, plumme, from Old French *plombe, from Latin plumba, plural of plumbum.

noun plumbs

  1. A little mass of lead, or the like, attached to a line, and used by builders, etc., to indicate a vertical direction.
  2. A weight on the end of a long line, used by sailors to determine the depth of water.
  3. The perpendicular direction or position. Customers turned away from rickety chairs, stands of drawers that refused to open, or had no handles, lop-sided wardrobes whose doors were out of plumb or whose mirrors were cracked.

Similar: plummet, plumb bob, plumb line

adjective more plumb · most plumb

  1. Truly vertical, as indicated by a plumb line.

    Similar: perpendicular

  2. Describing an LBW where the batsman is hit on the pads directly in front of their wicket and should be given out.

adverb

  1. not comparable In a vertical direction; perpendicularly. Plumb down he drops.
  2. informal, not comparable Squarely, directly; deeply, completely. It hit him plumb in the middle of his face.

verb plumbs · plumbing · plumbed

  1. To determine the depth, generally of a liquid; to sound.
  2. To attach to a water supply and drain. The kitchen sink is now plumbed in / up.
  3. figuratively, transitive To think about or explore in depth, to get to the bottom of. to plumb the depths of
  4. To use a plumb bob as a measuring or aligning tool.
  5. To accurately align vertically or horizontally.
  6. dated To seal something with lead.
  7. intransitive To work as a plumber.

    Similar: plumber

  8. rare To fall or sink like a plummet.
  9. US, colloquial, figuratively, obsolete To trace a road or track; to follow it to its end.
  10. To position vertically above or below.

plumb²

  • /plʌm/
  • /plʊm/ Northern England

Sounds like plum · Rhymes with -ʌm

noun plumbs

  1. obsolete Obsolete spelling of plum (“the fruit”). Without attending to sub-divisions, all the pears are of one species, as well as all the apples, plumbs, peaches, cherries, lemons, citrons, oranges […]

Plumb³

proper noun Plumbs

  1. A surname.

Thesaurus

noun

Similar: plummet, plumb bob, plumb line

Translations

Every language

noun mass attached to a line to indicate vertical direction

Españolplomada
Românăplumb

noun nautical: mass attached to a line to indicate depth

Españolplomada, sonda

adj truly vertical

Deutschlotrecht

adv in a vertical direction

Deutschsenkrecht, lotrecht

adv squarely, completely

中文正 zhèng

verb to determine the depth

Italianoappiombare

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Cite this
MLA

"plumb." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/plumb. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

plumb. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/plumb

Chicago

"plumb." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/plumb.

BibTeX
@misc{plumb_2026,
  title = {plumb},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/plumb},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}