plumb
verb /plʌm/
/plʌm/
(literary)Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they plumb | /plʌm/ /plʌm/ |
| he / she / it plumbs | /plʌmz/ /plʌmz/ |
| past simple plumbed | /plʌmd/ /plʌmd/ |
| past participle plumbed | /plʌmd/ /plʌmd/ |
| -ing form plumbing | /ˈplʌmɪŋ/ /ˈplʌmɪŋ/ |
- plumb something to try to understand or succeed in understanding something mysterious synonym fathom
- She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche.
- He had clearly plumbed the general sense of the message.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryPlumb is used with these nouns as the object:- depth
Word Originverb Middle English (originally in the sense ‘sounding lead’): via Old French from Latin plumbum ‘lead’. plumb something in. late 19th cent.: back-formation from plumber.
Idioms
plumb the depths of something
- to be or to experience an extreme example of something unpleasant
- His latest novel plumbs the depths of horror and violence.
- It was at that stage in her life when she plumbed the depths of despair.
- The team's poor performances plumbed new depths last night when they lost 10–2.
- The story plumbed the depths of tabloid journalism.