▪ I. plummet, n.
(ˈplʌmɪt)
Forms: 4–7 plomet, 5 plomm-, plombette, 5–6 plom-, plummette, Sc. plumat, 5–7 plumet, 6 plom-, plumbete, plomm-, plumet)e, Sc. plumbat, plummett, 6–8 plumbet, 6– plummet.
[ME. a. OF. plommet, plombet, plummet ball of lead, plummet, dim. of plomb lead: see plumb n. and -et1.]
1. A ball or piece of lead, or other weight, attached to a line, and used for determining the vertical; a plumb-bob. a. The bob of a plumb-line used by masons, builders, carpenters, etc.; also, the whole instrument, consisting of bob, line, and board.
| 1388 Wyclif Zech. i. 16 Myn hous schal be bildid in it,..and a plomet [1382 an hangynge lyne] schal be streiȝt out on Jerusalem [Vulg. et perpendiculum extendetur super Ierusalem]. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §23 A plomet hanging on a lyne heyer than thin heued on a perche. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ii. iv. (1495) b iij/1 Hangynge plometes and mesures. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 159 The Carpenter hath his squire, his rule, and his plomette. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 77 No Architect with Levels and Plummets could build a Room more regular. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §97 As we were..exposed to fresh gales of wind..there was no trusting to the perpendicularity of Threads and Plumbets. 1870 Bryant Iliad ii. I. 7 The plummet showed Their height the same. |
b. A similar appliance attached to a scientific instrument, as a quadrant.
| 1571 Digges Pantom. i. viii. D j, Conuey the left side of your quadrant Geometricall towarde the Sunne, the threade and Plummet hauing their free course. 1625 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. vi. (1635) 157 The line and plummet falling on the Basis shall make right Angles with it. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 99 Hold your Quadrant so as that your Plummet may fall on 45 Degrees. 1866 R. M. Ferguson Electr. (1870) 22 A small plummet hangs down from the object-glass of the theodolite. |
c. fig. A criterion of rectitude or truth.
| 1553 Bale Gardiner's De vera Obed. 5 By the perfect line and plummet of Gods word. 1587 Golding De Mornay xviii. (1592) 293 That he may holde the Plommet of his minde steddy without shaking or stirring. 1677 Gilpin Demonol. iii. xvii. 140 Lay all to the Line and Plummet of the written Word. |
d. A suspended weight used as a metronome.
| 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 140 The Music for Slow and Quick Time is to be practised..with the plummet, until the prescribed cadence has been acquired. |
2. A piece of lead or other metal attached to a line, and used for sounding or measuring the depth of water; a sounding-lead.
| 1382 Wyclif Acts xxvii. 28 The whiche sendinge doun a plomet, founden twenty pasis of depnesse. 1555 Eden Decades 121 He coulde at no tyme touche the grounde with his soundynge plummet. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iii. iii. 101 Therefore my Sonne i'th Ooze is bedded; and I'le seeke him deeper then ere plummet sounded. 1713 Young Last Day i. 300 Where plummet never reach'd, he draws his breath. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) xiii. §574 The greatest depths at which the bottom of the sea has been reached with the plummet are in the North Atlantic Ocean. |
| fig. 1632 Marmion Holland's Leaguer ii. ii, Your politicians with their..plummets of wit, sound the depth of me. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 1860 Man's science is the culture of his heart; And not to lose his plumbet in the depths Of nature, or the more profound of God. 1849 Lytton Caxtons i. iii, Certainly there were deeps in his nature which the plummet of her tender woman's wit had never sounded. |
† 3. The pommel or knob on the hilt of a sword (sometimes weighted with lead). Sc. Obs.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Chron. iii. i. 46 His suerd at he baire prevely [He] put it in his wambe sa fast Till it in to þe plomat past. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. xii. 97 Quhen that he saw hys rycht hand wapynles, And persauyt the plummet was onknaw. 1587 Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 205 The plumbattis or gairdis of ane of thair swerdis. ? a 1600 Dick o' the Cow xl. in Scott Minstr. Scott. Bord. (1869) 124 Dickie could na win at him wi' the blade o' the sword, But fell'd him wi' the plummet under the e'e. |
† 4. a. A ball or lump of lead used for various purposes; e.g. as a missile, fastened to a line, as a weapon or instrument of scourging, etc. Obs.
| 1481 Caxton Myrr. i. xvii. 53 Yf one threwe a stone or an heuy plomette of leed that wel weyed. 1483 ― Gold. Leg. 171/1 Thenne dyd he doo bete Saynt Urbane wyth plommettys. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 596 They toke stonys & plummettes of lede, & trussyd them secretely in theyr sleuys & bosomys. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 769 They themselves were also hurt by them with their Darts and Plummets of Lead. 1612 Dekker If it be not good, etc. Wks. 1873 III. 269 Wey down his loftiest boughes With leaden plomets. |
b. fig. That which presses or weighs down, like a dead weight.
| a 1625 Fletcher & Mass. Laws Candy iv. i, When sad thoughts perplex the mind of man, There is a plummet in the heart that weighs, And pulls us, living, to the dust we came from. 1672 Sir T. Browne Let. Friend §45 Hang early Plummets upon the Heels of Pride. 1874 in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. cxix. 25 Earthly cares and sins have..attached a leaden plummet to the wings of a soul which..would fain soar upwards. |
5. spec. † a. A leaden weight used in gymnastic exercises; a weight enclosed in a cestus. Obs.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 49 b, The plummettes, callid of Galen Alteres, being of equall weight and accordyng to the strength of him that exerciseth,..holdynge in euery hande one plummet, and lyftyng them on high, and bringing them downe with moche vyolence. 1538 Elyot, Cæstus, a weapon hauyng great plummates hangyng at the ende of a clubbe. 1572 J. Jones Bathes Buckstove 12 b, Plumbetes..one borne in eche hand vp and downe the stayers..may bee a good and profitable exercise. 1616–61 B. Holyday Persius 322 The cæstus..some describe to have been a kind of club, having plummets of lead fastned to it, which some call a whorle-bat. |
† b. A weight of a clock; also fig. a motive force, spring of action. Obs.
| 1594 Nashe Terrors Nt. Wks. (Grosart) III. 233 Such is our braine oppressed with Melancholly, as is a clocke tyed downe with two heauie weights or plummets. 1628 Wither Brit. Rememb. viii. 2561 The Clock, whose plummets are not weight, Strikes sometimes one for three, and sixe for eight. 1679 J. Goodman Penit. Pard. ii. ii. (1713) 185 Let us now see what are the springs or plummets that set this great engine on work. 1697 Davies' Immort. Soul Pref. b j b, Remarking how one part moves another,..from the first Springs and Plummets, to the very Hand that points out the visible and last Effects. |
c. In angling, a small piece of lead attached to a fishing line, as a weight to keep the float in an upright position, as an anchor in ledger fishing, or as a sounding lead to measure the depth.
| 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 512 You shall vnderstand, that your first plummet would be a foot from the hooke, the rest not aboue an ynch one distant from another, & not being aboue fiue or seuen at the most. 1651 T. Barker Art of Angling (1653) 3 Feeling the Plummet running on the ground..plumming my line according to the swiftnesse of the stream. 1653 Walton Angler vii. 155 If you would have this ledger bait to keep at a fixt place..then hang a small Plummet of lead, a stone, or piece of tyle. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. ii. 332 A Piece of thin Sheet-lead rolled up, of about an Ounce or better, makes the best Plummet. |
† 6. A pencil of lead, formerly used to rule lines; a lead-pen. Obs.
| 1634 J. B[ate] Myst. Nat. 104 Then with your blacke chalke or blacke lead plummets, draw it as perfectly..as you can. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. iv. 16 You must rule your Paper or Parchment with an obscure plummet. 1811 Self Instructor 26 A leaden plummet or pencil to rule lines. 1828 Webster, Plummet..a piece of lead used by schoolboys to rule their paper for writing. |
7. Comb., as plummet-line; plummet-deep, plummet-like, plummet-measured, plummet-shaped adjs.; plummet-wise adv.; plummet-level: see quot. 1875.
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. iv. Columnes 747 Pale Phlegm, moist Autumn, Water moistly-cold, The Plummet-like-smooth-sliding Tenor hold. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 122 Shakespeare has surface beneath surface..adapted to the plummet-line of every reader. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Plummet-level, that form of a level having a suspended plummet in a standard at right angles to the base-piece. A mason's level. 1895 K. Grahame Golden Age (1904) 18 On the blue ocean of air, a hawk hung ominous; then, plummet-wise, dropped to the hedgerow. 1899 Daily News 20 June 5/5 A piece of turned steel..with a plummet-shaped head sharply pointed. 1938 W. de la Mare Memory 38 Fleeter than Nereid, plummet-deep, Enticed by some long-sunken ship, She [sc. Memory]..laughs out to see The treasure she retrieves for me. 1939 W. B. Yeats Last Poems 16 And pressed at midnight in a public place Live lips upon a plummet-measured face. |
Hence ˈplummetless a., unfathomable.
| 1893 Nat. Observ. 11 Mar. 413/2 There is no deep so plummetless. |
▪ II. ˈplummet, v.
[f. plummet n.]
† 1. trans. To fathom, sound. Obs. rare.
| 1626 T. H[awkins] Caussin's Holy Crt. 221 Depths are plummeted. |
† 2. To let fall or draw (a vertical line) by means of a plummet. Obs. rare.
| 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 67 Strike the streight Line 4. 3. 1. 5. and plummet that Line down at the Ends of your Piece. |
3. intr. To fish with a line weighted with a plummet: cf. plummet n. 5 c, drail n. 1. rare.
| 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 180 It is not known when the custom of drailing for mackerel was first introduced,..it is [the common method] in the present day in England, under such names as ‘whiffing’, ‘railing’, ‘drailing’ or ‘plummeting’. |
4. a. trans. To cause to drop rapidly, to hurl down. b. intr. To drop or fall rapidly, to plunge down. Also fig.
| 1933 Sun (Baltimore) 11 Apr. 1/1 The U.S.S. Akron had reports that the weather was unfavorable for her purpose when she took off last Monday on the fatal flight that plummeted her into the sea from lightning-swept skies. 1939 Webster Add., Plummet, v.i., to drop or plunge straight down. 1944 F. Leiber in D. Knight 100 Yrs. Sci. Fiction (1969) 93 ‘I'm glad to see the last of that fellow,’ he muttered,..as they plummeted toward the roof. 1953 A. Moorehead Rum Jungle vii. 96 They [sc. gulls] plummeted down with their beaks wide open. 1958 B. Nichols Sweet & Twenties x. 132 Even worse, waists plummeted nine inches, to remain suspended somewhere below the navel. 1959 Daily Tel. 21 Nov. 1/6 Capt. Kittinger plummeted towards the earth until his parachute opened automatically at 10,000 feet. 1961 Time (Atlantic ed.) 23 June 26 The price of new potatoes plummeted to 1¢ a pound. 1963 C. L. Cooper Black x. 153 Twice I stumbled over the garbage cans lining the walk, rising,..to plummet on, not daring to imagine the scene I might find in the apartment. 1972 G. Durrell Catch me a Colobus ix. 186 Great gouts of water plummeted down from the sky so that the road, which was an earth one, was immediately turned into a dangerous mire. 1978 D. Bloodworth Crosstalk xi. 91 Rumours that Mao's health is failing have sent the Hong Kong stock exchange plummeting. 1979 Amer. N. & Q. Apr. 127/1 The Phillipe, Count of Darkness stories..plummeted his [sc. F. Scott Fitzgerald's] story-asking price from $3000 to $300. |
Hence ˈplummeting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1952 Chambers's Jrnl. May 262/1 The stone-like plummeting before the 'chute opens, the gentle floating in space, the enormous thud with which you hit the ground—these combine to give an experience unparalleled elsewhere. 1957 Economist 2 Nov. 380/2 The most calamitous thing..would be a world depression with plummeting prices. 1958 Times Rev. Industry Dec. 78/1 Spending..led to a rise of {pstlg}80m. in the Union's imports, and the plummeting of the South African foreign exchange reserves. |