sunken, ppl. a.
(ˈsʌŋkən)
[pa. pple. of sink v. See note on prec.]
1. That has sunk in water; submerged in, or situated beneath the surface of, water or other liquid.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 417 Iamys of Dowglas..Fand a litill sonkyn bate. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 165 As rich..As is the Owse and bottome of the Sea With sunken Wrack, and sum-lesse Treasuries. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 118 The Tide running rampant, and in a great Swell, every where surrounded with sunken Rocks. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. xv. 264 The Bell Rock is a sunken reef, consisting of red sandstone. 1842 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. V. (Contents), Sunken vessels, new mode of raising. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. xi. 357 In the coral-producing oceans such sunken islands are now marked..by rings of coral or atolls standing over them. |
2. Of the eyes, cheeks, etc.: Abnormally depressed or hollow; fallen in. Comb., as sunken-eyed.
| 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. ii. 393 A leane cheeke..: a blew eie and sunken. 1825 Scott Betrothed xxx, Her eyes were sunken, and had lost much of their bold and roguish lustre. 1844 Mrs. Browning Cry of Children iii, They look up with their pale and sunken faces. 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick I. xxxiv. 253 Your whales must be seen before they are killed; and this sunken-eyed Platonist will tow you ten wakes round the world, and never make you one pint of sperm the richer. c 1853 Kingsley Misc. (1859) I. i. 38 When he forgets the grey hair and the sunken cheek. 1910 Westm. Gaz. 1 Jan. 2/3 A horse..with sunken-in flanks and a bony, bent head. 1971 S. Hill Strange Meeting 191 The men glanced up apprehensively as they passed along, and their faces had the sunken-eyed look of suppressed fear. |
3. a. That has sunk below the usual or general level; subsided.
| 1832 G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 418 The Arch of Constantine..stands on a sunken area, enclosed by a wall. 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge i, Its floors were sunken and uneven. 1857 ― Dorrit ii. x, He..ascended the unevenly sunken steps and knocked. |
b. Of the sun: Gone down below the horizon.
| 1816 Scott Old Mort. xxxiv, The long train of light that follows the sunken sun. 1820 Shelley Skylark iii, In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun. |
c. Drooping.
| 1890 Conan Doyle White Company xxxviii, With crossed ankles and sunken head, he sat as though all his life had passed out of him. |
d. fig. Depressed, reduced.
| 1854 Lowell Fireside Trav. Pr. Wks. 1890 I. 180 So gathered the hoarse Northern swarms to descend upon sunken Italy. |
4. In technical use: = sunk ppl. a. 4 b, as sunken bath, sunken garden, sunken living-room, sunken story, etc.
sunken battery (Milit.): a battery in which the platform is sunk below the level of the ground.
| 1808 Forsyth Beauties Scot. V. 421 The enclosures are of various kinds: stone dikes, earthen dikes, ditches, hedges, and half-dikes or sunken-fences. 1831–3 P. Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 613/1 The Ancients employed a sunken die. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 340 The rocky nature of the soil..rendered it necessary to carry up earth for the formation of an elevated, instead of a sunken battery. 1860 Illustr. Lond. News 25 Feb. 187/3 Unless the window be on the sunken story. 1882 Garden 1 Apr. 213/2 The sunken garden is a delightful sight. 1892 G. Philips Text Bk. Fortif., etc. (ed. 5) §569 A sunken caponier tambour. 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby (1926) v. 110 Through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths. 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 26 Sept. 42/3 (Advt.), 3 Bedrooms, 3 Washrooms, Electric Light Fixtures, Sunken Living Rooms. 1976 M. Machlin Pipeline xxxvii. 408 The entrance hall, which gave onto a white-carpeted, sunken living-room, looked as though a regiment of cavalry had galloped through it. 1979 J. Melville Wages of Zen xi. 110 The tiled sunken bath was drained and clean. |