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''plumb'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''plumb'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260817195045-00-⌔

plumb - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

plumb (plural plumbs)

  • A little mass of lead, or the like, attached to a line, and used by builders, etc., to indicate a vertical direction.
  • (nautical) A weight on the end of a long line, used by sailors to determine the depth of water.
  • The perpendicular direction or position.
    • ✤ Customers turned away from rickety chairs, stands of drawers that refused to open, or had no handles, lop-sided wardrobes whose doors were out of plumb or whose mirrors were cracked.1

Adjective

plumb (comparative more plumb, superlative most plumb)

  • Truly vertical, as indicated by a plumb line.
  • (cricket) Describing an LBW where the batsman is hit on the pads directly in front of their wicket and should be given out.

Adverb

plumb (not comparable)

  • In a vertical direction; perpendicularly.
    • ✤ * Plumb down he drops.*2
  • (informal) Squarely, directly; deeply, completely.
    • ✤ It hit him plumb in the middle of his face.
    • ✤ Years ago the well plumb dried out, not a drop of water in there since.
    • ✤ ‘Are you sure of that, M. Hardman?’ ‘I’m plumb certain.’.3

Verb

plumb (third-person singular simple present plumbs, present participle plumbing, simple past and past participle plumbed)

  • To determine the depth, generally of a liquid; to sound.
  • To attach to a water supply and drain.
    • ✤ The kitchen sink is now plumbed in/up.
  • (transitive, figurative) To think about or explore in depth, to get to the bottom of.
    • ✤ to plumb the depths of
    • ✤ Delving to the core of her heart, his blue-green eyes plumbed her psyche, stripping it of all defenses, all resolve.4
    • ✤ The pressure had been on City, on Guardiola, to deliver the trophy that Sheikh Mansour has craved since his takeover in 2008 but it was an occasion when the manager found a new way to lose, to plumb fresh depths of frustration.5
  • To use a plumb bob as a measuring or aligning tool.
  • To accurately align vertically or horizontally.
  • (dated) To seal something with lead.
  • (intransitive) To work as a plumber.
    • ✤ Synonym: plumber
  • (rare) To fall or sink like a plummet.
  • (US, colloquial, figuratively, obsolete) To trace a road or track; to follow it to its end.
  • (nautical) To position vertically above or below.

Noun

plumb (plural plumbs)

  • Obsolete spelling of plum (“the fruit”).
    • ✤ Without attending to sub-divisions, all the pears are of one species, as well as all the apples, plumbs, peaches, cherries, lemons, citrons, oranges […]6

Pronunciation

  • enPR: plŭm, IPA: /plʌm/
    • Audio (US): 🔊
    • Audio (Australia): 🔊
  • (Northern England) IPA: /plʊm/
  • Rhymes: -ʌm
  • Homophone: plum

Etymology 1

From Middle English plumbe, plumme, from Old French ﹡plombe, from Latin plumba, plural of plumbum.

Etymology 2

Printed 2026-08-17.

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Footnotes

  1. 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 61: ↩

  2. 1667, John Milton, “”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a] nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a] nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC: ↩

  3. 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 9, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 143: ↩

  4. 2011, Catherine Lanigan, The Texan: ↩

  5. 2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian ‎: ↩

  6. 1767, Select Essays on Husbandry: ↩

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