plummet

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplʌm.ət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmɪt

Noun

plummet (plural plummets)

1. (archaic) A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water.
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 3

     I'll sink him deeper than e'er plummet sounded.

2. (archaic) A plumb bob or a plumb line
3. (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.

4. (archaic) A piece of lead formerly used by school children to rule paper for writing (that is, to mark with rules, with lines)
5. A plummet line, a line with a plummet; a sounding line
6. Violent or dramatic fall
7. (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.

Verb

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.

See also

• plumb line
• plumb

References

• “plummet” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2018.