plummet

Meanings

Noun

• A piece of lead attached to a line, used in sounding the depth of water, a plumb bob or a plumb line
• Hence, any weight
• A piece of lead formerly used by school children to rule paper for writing (that is, to mark with rules, with lines)
• A plummet line, a line with a plummet; a sounding line
• Violent or dramatic fall
• A decline; a fall; a drop

Verb

• To drop swiftly, in a direct manner; to fall quickly.

Related

Similar words

• dive, drop, fall

Opposite words

• ascend, rise, rocket, soar, skyrocket

Origin

• From Middle English plommet, recorded since 1382, from Old French plommet or plomet, the diminutive of plom, plum, from Latin plumbum. The verb is first recorded in 1626, originally meaning “to fathom, take soundings", from the noun.