plunging

Pluralplungings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of plunge.

   The temperature was plunging as the storm rolled in.

   Plunging into the freezing river, the dog paddled toward the stick.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb, transitive and intransitive alike. You can be plunging a hand into water or plunging into it yourself, and figuratively plunging someone into despair or plunging into work. As a gerund it fills noun positions. Once it settles into a fixed meaning it becomes the countable noun, which takes a plural: plungings.

2. 2
   adjective

   Sloping or falling away very steeply, dropping down at a sharp angle.

   The trail followed a plunging ravine toward the canyon floor.

   Hikers paused at the edge of the plunging gorge to catch their breath.

   Similarsteep, precipitous, sheer

   Oppositegentle, gradual

3. 3
   adjective

   Cut very low at the neckline, exposing much of the upper chest.

   The designer paired a plunging bodice with a long, flowing skirt.

   She felt the plunging cut was too daring for a work event.

   Similarlow, revealing, deep

   Oppositehigh, modest

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An act of putting or sinking something under water or another fluid.

   The sudden plunging of the submarine alarmed the crew below deck.

   A brief plunging into the icy spring is part of the morning ritual.

   Similarimmersion, submersion, dip, dive

   Oppositesurfacing, emergence

5. 5
   adjective

   Directed downward onto a target from higher ground, as gunfire delivered upon an enemy from above.

   Plunging fire from the heights reached troops sheltering behind the low wall.

   The garrison on the ridge laid down plunging fire across the open field.

   Note

   A soldier's word whose natural partner is fire. What matters is the angle: shot coming down steeply from a height strikes the tops of fortifications or the decks of ships rather than their upright faces, so a wall that stops level fire may not shelter the troops behind it. Unlike the steep-slope adjective, it describes the line of what is fired, not the shape of the ground.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A headlong, violent motion, like that of a horse heaving forward and down to throw its rider.

   A few seconds of furious plunging sent the cowboy sprawling into the dust.

   The stallion's plunging grew so violent that the groom let go of the reins.

   Similarbucking, lunging, lurching, pitching

   Note

   A word for animals in revolt, and it often comes in the plural. Mark Twain's The Prince and The Pauper (1881) has "kicks, cuffs, tramplings and plungings" around a mule, and Melville's Moby Dick (1851) has "the plungings of the Roman race-horse." Norman Lindsay keeps it singular in "a mighty plunging of horses." The plural counts separate heaves, while the singular with of names the whole commotion.

Showing meanings only. Show all 6