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Definition of "plunge" []

  • To thrust or throw forcefully into a substance or place: "Plunge the lobsters, head first, into a large pot of rapidly boiling salted water” ( Craig Claiborne). (verb-transitive)
  • To cast suddenly, violently, or deeply into a given state or situation: "The street was plunged in cool shadow” ( Richard Wright). (verb-transitive)
  • To fall or throw oneself into a substance or place: We plunged into the icy mountain lake. (verb-intransitive)
  • To throw oneself earnestly or wholeheartedly into an activity or situation: plunged into my studies. (verb-intransitive)
  • To enter or move headlong through something: The hunting dogs plunged into the forest. (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.

Use "plunge" in a sentence
  • "How did Louis Drax, a deeply disturbed, accident-prone nine-year-old, plunge from a cliff at a family picnic?"
  • "It irrigates a score of mountain meadows before it makes the plunge and is clarified to crystal clearness in the next few rugged miles; and at the plunge from the highlands it generates half the power and all the lighting used on the ranch."
  • "But keeping them in amid a market plunge is a goal that trading firms and even Ms. Schapiro say may prove complicated."