Plummet
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈplʌm.ət/
- Rhymes: -ʌmɪt
Origin
From Old 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.
Full definition of plummet
Noun
plummet
(plural plummets)- (archaic) A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water.
- 1610, , by William Shakespeare, act 3 scene 3I'll sink him deeper than e'er plummet sounded.
- (archaic) A plumb bob or a plumb line.
- (archaic) Hence, any weight.
- 1945, Ernie Pyle, Here is Your War: Story of G.I. Joe, The World Publishing Company (1945), page #93:His parachute was shot half away, and if he'd jumped he would have fallen like a plummet.
- (archaic) A piece of lead formerly used by school children to rule paper for writing
- a plummet line, a line with a plummet; a sounding line.
- Violent or dramatic fall
- (figuratively) decline; fall; drop
- 2010, December 29, Chris Whyatt, Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton, 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.