plumb
pronunciation
How to pronounce plumb in British English:
UK [plʌm]
How to pronounce plumb in American English:
US [plʌm]
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- Noun:
- the metal bob of a plumb line
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- Verb:
- measure the depth of something
- weight with lead
- examine thoroughly and in great depth
- adjust with a plumb line so as to make vertical
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- Adjective:
- exactly vertical
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- Adverb:
- completely; used as intensifiers
- conforming to the direction of a plumb line
- exactly
Word Origin
- plumb
- plumb: [13] Plumb comes via Old French *plombe from Latin plumbum ‘lead’, a word of uncertain origin. Of its modern English uses, the verbal ‘sound the depths’ comes from the use of a line weighted with lead (a plumb line) to measure the depth of water and the adverbial ‘exactly’ from the use of a similar line to determine verticality. Related words in English include aplomb; plumber [14] (originally simply a ‘worker in lead’, but eventually, since water pipes were once made of lead, a ‘pipe-layer’); plummet [14] (a diminutive form coined in Old French); and plunge [14] (from the Vulgar Latin derivative *plumbicāre ‘sound with a plumb’).=> aplomb, plumber, plummet, plunge
- plumb (n.)
- "lead hung on a string to show the vertical line," early 14c., from Old French *plombe, plomee "sounding lead," and directly from Late Latin *plumba, originally plural of Latin plumbum "lead (the metal), lead ball; pipe; pencil," a word of unknown origin, related to Greek molybdos "lead" (dialectal bolimos) and perhaps from an extinct Mediterranean language, perhaps Iberian.
- plumb (v.)
- early 15c., "to sink" (like lead), from plumb (n.). Meaning "take soundings with a plumb" is first recorded 1560s; figurative sense of "to get to the bottom of" is from 1590s. Related: Plumbed; plumbing.
- plumb (adj.)
- "perpendicular, vertical," mid-15c., from plumb (n.). The notion of "exact measurement" led to extended sense of "completely, downright" (1748), sometimes spelled plump, plum, or plunk.
Example
- 1. Bricklayers and carpenters often use plumb lines .
- 2. Man 's capacity to plumb the truth .
- 3. I don 't know what it is about you carmen that makes me feel plumb loco .
- 4. Charles chuck plumb was a u.s. navy jet pilot in vietnam .
- 5. In trenches around the fortified city , plumb martin , now a sergeant , waits with 8000 other patriot soldiers for the signal to attack .