英语词汇“plummet”的英英意思、用法、释义、翻译、读音、例句、短语、词组-英语词典

WORD ORIGINplummet

Origin:

1900-2000 plummet ‘metal weight on a plumb line’ (14-21 centuries), from Old French plommet ‘small ball of lead’, from plomb; ➔ PLUMB1

VERB TABLE

plummet

Simple Form
Present	I, you, we, they	plummet
	he, she, it	plummets
Past	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	plummeted
Present perfect	I, you, we, they	have plummeted
	he, she, it	has plummeted
Past perfect	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	had plummeted
Future	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	will plummet
Future perfect	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	will have plummeted

Continuous Form
Present	I	am plummeting
	he, she, it	is plummeting
	you, we, they	are plummeting
Past	I, he, she, it	was plummeting
	you, we, they	were plummeting
Present perfect	I, you, we, they	have been plummeting
	he, she, it	has been plummeting
Past perfect	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	had been plummeting
Future	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	will be plummeting
Future perfect	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	will have been plummeting

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES

Enrollment at the school has plummeted to 25 students.
The helicopters slammed together before plummeting to the ground.
The rope snapped, causing the climber to plummet several hundred feet down the mountain.
Two aircraft on a training flight collided and plummeted to the ground.

EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS

And the price of big houses like that has really plummeted in the last year.
Beef sales, prices and consumer demand have plummeted.
But two years later, that figure has plummeted to 39 percent.
Like a bulldozer plowing through snow, the plummeting granite sheet shoved air ahead of it.
Retail sales of the quintessential red meats are plummeting, whilst vegetarianism has become a fashionable norm.
Sixty-five percent of women start off breastfeeding - but that figure plummets to 40 percent in the six weeks after delivery.
The ledges gleamed in the air briefly in the gray light then plummeted as the water gargled and spat all around them.
With a sudden drop-pounce, he plummets.

THESAURUS► decrease

to become less in number or amount: · The average rainfall has decreased by around 30 percent.

► go down

to decrease. Go down is less formal than decrease and is the usual word to use in conversation: · Unemployment has gone down in the past few months.

► decline

formal to decrease – used with numbers or amounts, or about the level or standard of something: · The standard of living has declined.· Support for the government is steadily declining.· Salaries have declined by around 4.5%.

► diminish

to become smaller or less important: · Union membership diminished from 30,000 at its height to just 2,000 today.

► fall/drop

to decrease, especially by a large amount. Fall and drop are less formal than decrease: · The number of tigers in the wild has fallen to just over 10,000.· At night, the temperature drops to minus 20 degrees.

► plunge/plummet

to suddenly decrease very quickly and by a very large amount: · Share prices have plummeted 29% in the last four months.· Climate change could cause global temperatures to plummet.

► slide

if a price or value slides, it gradually decreases in a way that causes problems – used especially in news reports: · The dollar fell in late trading in New York yesterday and slid further this morning.

► dwindle

to gradually decrease until there is very little left of something, especially numbers or amounts, popularity, or importance: · Support for the theory is dwindling.

► taper off

if a number or the amount of an activity that is happening tapers off, it gradually decreases, especially so that it stops completely: · Political violence tapered off after the elections.

Longman Language Activatorto fall through the air to the ground► fall

· One of the climbers fell fifty feet.· A light rain was falling.fall out/into/from etc · She opened the cupboard and everything fell out.· There should be spaces between the boards of the deck to allow debris to fall through.· Fred fell out of the tree and broke his arm.· The girl had fallen from a fourth-floor window, but was not badly hurt.fall on · Careful that box doesn't fall on you, Charlotte!

► fall off

to accidentally fall from something in a high position to the ground: · Jim was laughing so hard he fell off his chair.· A bag of groceries fell off the table onto the floor.

► plunge

to suddenly fall a long way from somewhere high up: · The aeroplane's engines failed and it plunged into the ocean.plunge off/down/into etc: · Their car swerved to avoid a truck, and plunged off the cliff.plunge to your death (=fall a long way and be killed): · A skydiver plunged to his death yesterday when his parachute failed to open.

► plummet

to fall from somewhere high up, very quickly and very directly: · The rope snapped, causing the climber to plummet several hundred feet down the mountain.· Two aircraft on a training flight collided and plummeted to the ground.

► drop

to fall suddenly from a high place straight down onto or towards the ground: drop onto/to/from etc: · Two bottles rolled across the table, dropped onto the floor, and smashed.· A few pine cones had already dropped to the ground.

► tumble

to fall quickly through the air, rolling over and over: tumble down/off/from etc: · A little girl tumbled about 30 feet from the window of her family's third-floor apartment.

► come down

if rain, snow etc comes down , it falls heavily: · We can't go out now -- the rain's really coming down.· Snow was coming down so thickly I could barely see through the window.

when prices, numbers etc become less► go down/come down

to become less: · Attendance at the school's basketball games has gone down significantly in the last few years.· I'm hoping the price will come down if I wait a while.

► fall/drop

to become less, especially by a large amount: · Sales have fallen dramatically in Houston and Toronto.fall/drop to: · At night, the temperature drops to -20°C.fall/drop from something to something: · Profits fell from £98.5 million to £76 million.

► decrease

to become less - used especially in writing about business or technical subjects: · Experts say that the time parents spend with their children is decreasing.decrease to: · The speed of rotation gradually decreases to zero.

► decline

a gradual decrease in the number or amount of something good or important so that the situation becomes worse: · Firms with large debts may not have the financial strength to survive a prolonged sales decline or a recession.decline in: · We can expect a further decline in job vacancies.

► reduction

when a price, level etc is reduced - use this when something is reduced deliberately: · New production methods led to a cost reduction of about 50 percent.reduction in: · Cleaner fuel has contributed to a reduction in air pollution.· a reduction in working hours

► cut

a reduction in the amount or size of something made by a government or large organization - use this especially when talking about politics or business: cut in: · Cuts in the education budget have led to fewer teachers and larger classes.pay/job/tax cuts (=cuts in wages, number of jobs, or taxes): · The whole team agreed to take pay cuts, rather than see their colleagues lose their jobs.· Some senators have called for huge tax cuts to stimulate the economy.

► plummet/plunge

to drop very rapidly and by a large amount: · As soon as the sun went down, the temperature plummeted.· The drought has caused the price of hay to soar, and the price of cattle has plummeted.plummet/plunge 20 degrees/thirty points etc: · The stock market plunged 30 points when the news was announced.

► taper off

if a number or the amount of activity happening tapers off , it gradually decreases: · Towards sunset, the rain began to taper off.

► dwindle

if supplies or numbers of something dwindle , they gradually decrease: · The country's foreign currency reserves have dwindled over the past few years.dwindle to: · The original platoon of 30 men had dwindled to 12.

► slide

if a price or value slides it gradually decreases in a way that causes problems - used especially in news reports: · Prices will continue to slide unless production is reduced.· The dollar fell in late trading in New York yesterday and slid further this morning.

► take a nosedive

also nosedive informal if the price or value of something takes a nosedive , it becomes lower very quickly and causes problems. If an economy takes a nosedive it become worse very quickly: · Since January, sales of cars and trucks, including minivans, have nosedived.· Shares on the stock exchange took another nosedive Friday.

COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► down

· It plummets down towards the sunning man on the lawn.

► more

· The Nasdaq Combined Composite index, home to many of these stocks, plummeted more than 3 percent today.

NOUN► percent

· Sixty-five percent of women start off breastfeeding - but that figure plummets to 40 percent in the six weeks after delivery.· But two years later, that figure has plummeted to 39 percent.· The Nasdaq Combined Composite index, home to many of these stocks, plummeted more than 3 percent today.· Meanwhile, new-homes sales plummeted by 10.9 percent in January, the biggest drop in seven years.

► price

· All over the world prices were plummeting and so were distraught financiers.· World rice and rubber prices plummeted and production was cut.· Within months farm prices had plummeted and wages were also being driven steadily down.· In 1994, when bond prices plummeted, so did trading revenue.· He also ordered the government to buy more school lunch beef to bolster cattle prices, now plummeting because of a drought.· Land prices plummeted as Hindus as well as Sikhs left the state to escape violence.· Microsoft appealed against this ruling-the case goes back to court next month-but its share price plummeted.

VERB► send

· Inflation fears and rising interest rates sent the stock market plummeting to its fourth consecutive loss yesterday.· The gloomy developments have sent tobacco stock prices plummeting.