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Sink

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sink¹

  • /ˈsɪŋk/ US, UK
  • /ˈsiŋk/
  • /zɪŋk/

Sounds like cinque, sync, synch, zinc (Baltimore, New Orleans) · Rhymes with -ɪŋk

Where it comes from

From Middle English synken, from Old English sincan, from Proto-West Germanic *sinkwan, from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”).

Compare West Frisian sinke, Low German sinken, Dutch zinken, German sinken, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synke, Swedish sjunka. In the causative sense, it replaced Old English senċan (“make sink”) from Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną.

verb sinks · sinking · sank · sunk · sunken

  1. ergative, physical To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance. A stone sinks in water.  The sun gradually sank in the west.
  2. physical, transitive To (directly or indirectly) cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight. An iceberg sank the Titanic.  British battleships sank the Bismarck.
  3. physical, transitive To push (something) into something. Before installing the new surfacing material, sink any protruding nails.
  4. physical, transitive To make by digging or delving. to sink a well in the ground
  5. physical, transitive To pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole. My sister beats me at pool in public a second time. I claim some dignity back by potting two of my balls before Tammy sinks the black.
  6. figuratively, intransitive To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression. But open converse is there none, ⁠So much the vital spirits sink ⁠To see the vacant chair, and think, ‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’
  7. figuratively, transitive To cause to decline; to depress or degrade. to sink one's reputation
  8. intransitive To demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals. Who would sink so low as to steal change from veterans?
  9. archaic, slang, transitive To conceal and appropriate. If you are sent with ready money to buy anything at a shop, and happen at that time to be out of pocket, sink the money, and take up the goods on your master's account.
  10. archaic, slang, transitive To keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore. I say not always dishonorable qualifications, but a certain flexibility of disposition; a certain courtly willingness to sink obnoxious truths, and adapt ourselves to the prejudices of the minds of others […]
  11. slang, transitive To drink (especially something alcoholic). So let's sink another drink / 'Cause it'll give me time to think
  12. slang, transitive To pay absolutely. I have sunk thousands of pounds into this project.
  13. archaic, slang, transitive To reduce or extinguish by payment. to sink the national debt
  14. intransitive To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength. I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.
  15. archaic, intransitive To die. However, before the entire mass was detached, a copious oozing of blood took place, when the patient lost from a pint to a pint and a half; and which, doubtless, so lowered him that he never rallied, but sank in about an hour and a half after the operation was completed.
  16. intransitive To decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height. The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him: / Through wind and waves, and storms he works his way

noun sinks

  1. A basin used for holding water for washing. Roy: The work was fiiine. There was nothing wrong with the work. But they caught him... He pissed in the sink. Jen: Oh. Oh! Roy: Yeah... Jen: Which sink? Roy: All the sinks. Yeah, he basically went on a pee parade around the house. Jen: Oh God, I have to fire him.
  2. A drain for carrying off wastewater.
  3. A sinkhole.
  4. A depression in land where water collects, with no visible outlet.
  5. A heat sink.
  6. A place that absorbs resources or energy.
  7. A habitat that cannot support a population on its own but receives the excess of individuals from some other source.
  8. uncountable Descending motion; descent. An excessive sink rate at touchdown can cause the aircraft's landing gear to collapse.
  9. uncountable The motion of a sinker pitch. Jones has a two-seamer with heavy sink.
  10. An object or callback that captures events.
  11. A destination vertex in a transportation network.
  12. A node in directed graph for which all of its edges go into it; one with no outgoing edges.
  13. An abode of degraded persons; a wretched place.
  14. A depression in a stereotype plate.
  15. A stage trapdoor for shifting scenery.
  16. An excavation smaller than a shaft.
  17. One or several systems that remove currency from the game's economy, thus controlling or preventing inflation.

Sink²

Where it comes from

From the Dutch and northern German surname, from Zink (“cornetto, trumpet-like instrument”).

proper noun Sinks

  1. A surname.

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