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plummet

[pluhm-it]

noun

Also called plumb bob. a piece of lead or some other weight attached to a line, used for determining perpendicularity, for sounding, etc.; the bob of a plumb line.

something that weighs down or depresses.

verb (used without object)

to plunge.

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Plummet is one of our favorite verbs.

So is absquatulate. Does it mean:

to flee; abscond:

to spend time idly; loaf.

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Origin:
1350–1400; (noun) Middle English plommet < Middle French, diminutive of plomb lead; (v.) derivative of the noun See plumb, -et

Related forms

un·plum·met·ed, adjective

Synonyms
3. fall, dive, drop, swoop.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To plummet

Example Sentences

When online learning is regulated differently, its price will plummet.

When the baby-boomers retire, the size of the working population will plummet.

Overfishing has caused fish populations and catches to plummet.

EXPAND

When online learning is regulated differently, its price will plummet.

When the baby-boomers retire, the size of the working population will plummet.

Overfishing has caused fish populations and catches to plummet.

Melvin felt his status plummet from potential hero to loser.

When you look at how the mortality rates plummet with the simple act of giving out a net.

Fossil fuel consumption and carbon dioxide generation will plummet.

New book sales plummet as used books and examination copies flood the market.

If consumer-price inflation is about to plummet so far below its target, more rate cuts will be coming soon.

However, when colder years arrive, many northern birds are unable to survive and fringe populations plummet.

Diversity will plummet and exotic diseases will continue to plague the survivors.

Anvils plummet down from above as you harvest the crop.

And we're a slac that saw the already tiny endowment plummet.

The slowing economy is pushing many state budgets into the red as tax revenues plummet.

But during the last century oyster populations began to plummet.

The overall market is unlikely to plummet when mining and energy stocks are holding up so well.

As the robots plummet downward, parachutes will open.

Consumer goods manufacturers win the tug-o-war and capital goods makers lose, causing their profits to plummet and many to fail.

Waterfalls plummet from cliffs on either side of the valley.

But they could plummet if the batteries cause problems or users find the range of the vehicles too limiting.

When their numbers began to plummet in the mid-1990s researchers were mystified.

For their part, suppliers will fire their workers and watch their profits and stock prices plummet.

New data show the global recession accomplished what other measures struggled to do: it made greenhouse gas emissions plummet.

Suggest a manhole, and he'd plummet straight down it.

Conventional fitness wisdom told him his results would plummet when his workout time was halved.

It is extremely tough to get your hopes up so high and then watch it plummet down when you don't see what you are hoping for.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing a burning engine separate from the plane and plummet to earth.

After the baby is born, those numbers plummet but some cells remain.

Some traders warn that the dollar could plummet if the talks break down.

Rather than exploding, aliens bump and plummet into each other and it takes some effort to push them out of the way.

Americans normally rush to refinance when rates plummet.

The value of the franc could continue to plummet rather than have a sporadic rise.

Now water tables plummet in countries harboring half the world's population.

They make cholesterol levels plummet by blocking an enzyme required in its synthesis.

Without them food production would plummet and cost would go through the roof.

Prices always plummet in a price war, often to below the point which can sustain a business.

Teen pregnancies plummet while the number of research scientists doubles.

Food production will plummet and the country will not be able to feed itself.

If rates rise in that period, the zero-coupon can plummet in value.

Not only this, the world's financial standings could plummet.

The sodium levels in their blood can plummet and cause irritability, brain swelling, unresponsiveness and seizures.

Coal and iron prices will plummet along with oil and other commodities.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

plummet (ˈplʌmɪt)

—vb , -mets, -meting, -meted
1.	(intr) to drop down; plunge

—n
2.	another word for plumb bob
3.	a lead plumb used by anglers to determine the depth of water

[C14: from Old French plommet ball of lead, from plomb lead, from Latin plumbum]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

plummet

late 14c., "ball of lead, plumb of a bob-line," from O.Fr. plomet, dim. of plom "sounding lead" (see plumb). The verb is first recorded 1620s, originally "to fathom, take soundings," from the noun. Meaning "to fall rapidly" first recorded 1939.

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Related Words

lead plumb bob

sound sounding line

Matching Quote

"I love all men who dive. Any fish can swim near the surface, but it takes a great whale to go down stairs five miles or more; & if he don't attain the bottom, why, all the lead in Galena can't fashion the plummet that will."

-Herman Melville

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