PLUMB • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Plumb

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/pləm/ Listen

noun

Plumb n. A little mass or weight of lead, or the like, attached to a line, and used by builders, etc., to indicate a vertical direction; a plummet; a plumb bob. See Plumb line, below.

Plumb bob. See Bob, 4.

Plumb joint, in sheet-metal work, a lap joint, fastened by solder.

Plumb level. See under Level.

Plumb line.

(a)

The cord by which a plumb bob is suspended; a plummet.

(b)

A line directed to the center of gravity of the earth.

Plumb rule, a narrow board with a plumb line, used by builders and carpenters.

verb

Plumb v. t. (past & past part. plumbed; pres. part. plumbing)

To adjust by a plumb line; to cause to be perpendicular; as, to plumb a building or a wall.

To sound with a plumb or plummet, as the depth of water; hence, to examine by test; to ascertain the depth, quality, dimension, etc.; to sound; to fathom; to test. "He did not attempt to plumb his intellect."

To seal with lead; as, to plumb a drainpipe.

To supply, as a building, with a system of plumbing.

adjective

Plumb adj. Perpendicular; vertical; conforming the direction of a line attached to a plumb; as, the wall is plumb.

adverb

Plumb adv. In a plumb direction; perpendicularly. "Plumb down he falls."

See images of 'Plumb'

Etymology of 'Plumb'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Plumb" Quotes from Famous Books

... Brewster. "I only paid Thirty-Five Cents for the Glass Blowers, an' I'll warrant you they beat your Troupe as bad as Cranberries beats Glue. I'll see you plumb in Halifax before I—" ...

— More Fables • George Ade

... his most mysterious air of business, told Edwin to follow him into the shop. Several hours of miscellaneous consultative pottering had passed between Darius and his compositors round and about the new printing machine, which was once more plumb and ready for action. For considerably over a week Edwin had been on his father's general staff without any definite task or occupation having been assigned to him. His father had been too excitedly preoccupied with the arrival and ...

— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett

... an issue or two, we note a letter from Edwin Magnuson, a deluded denizen of Duluth, who says he's plumb disgusted because Astounding Stories receives far more bouquets than brickbats, when according to him the mag deserves to be panned plenty. Get in step, ...

— Astounding Stories, May, 1931 • Various

... clearly conscious of his love for Katiousha; especially if it were sought to persuade him that he could and must not link his fate to that of the girl, he would very likely have decided in his plumb-line mind that there was no reason why he should not marry her, no matter who she was, provided he loved her. But the aunts did not speak of their fears, and he departed without knowing that ...

— The Awakening - The Resurrection • Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy

... if he will—says he's gone to bed, an' that there ain't a cussed female in this blasted country he'd git up for," he reported circumstantially to the clerk. "He told me to tell you to go plumb to hell, an' that if any one else come poundin' 'round thar to-night, he'd take a pot shot at 'em through the door. 'Fifteen' seemed a bit peevish, sir, an' I reckoned if he was riled up much more, he might git rambunctious; ...

— Keith of the Border • Randall Parrish

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