Definition of "plummet" []

• See plumb bob. (noun)
• Something that weighs down or oppresses; a burden. (noun)
• To fall straight down; plunge. (verb-intransitive)
• To decline suddenly and steeply: Stock prices plummeted. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Church invented nothing new of her own when she began to extol Mary; she did not plummet from the worship of the one God to the praise of man."
• ""We don't normally use the word plummet but that is the operative word right now," said Mr. Ward."
• "The other factor causing military morale to plummet is President Bush's preemptive war in Iraq, which has been followed by a post-war period of no planning that has placed our soldiers in harm's way without hope."