plummet
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plummet
- /ˈplʌmɪt/ UK
- /ˈplʌmət/ US
- /plʊmɪt/ Northern England
Rhymes with -ʌmɪt
Where it comes from
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.
noun plummets
- A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water; a plumb bob or a plumb line. I'le ſeeke him deeper than ere plummet ſounded, / And with him there lye mudded.
- Hence, any weight. His parachute was shot half away, and if he'd jumped he would have fallen like a plummet.
- A piece of lead formerly used by schoolchildren to rule paper for writing (that is, to mark with rules, with lines).
- A violent or dramatic fall.
- A decline; a fall; a drop. 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.
verb plummets · plummeting · plummetting · plummeted · plummetted
- To drop swiftly, in a direct manner; to fall quickly. After its ascent, the arrow plummeted to earth.
