Plunge /(?)/
Plunge
v. t.
imp. & p. p. Plunged; p. pr. & vb. n. Plunging
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To thrust into water, or into any substance that is penetrable; to immerse; to cause to penetrate or enter quickly and forcibly; to thrust; as, to plunge the body into water; to plunge a dagger into the breast. Also used figuratively; as, to plunge a nation into war.
Bound and plunged him into a cell.
We shall be plunged into perpetual errors.
- To baptize by immersion.
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To entangle; to embarrass; to overcome. [Obs.]
Plunged and graveled with three lines of Seneca.
Plunge
v. i.
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To thrust or cast one's self into water or other fluid; to submerge one's self; to dive, or to rush in; as, he plunged into the river. Also used figuratively; as, to plunge into debt.
Forced to plunge naked in the raging sea.
To plunge into guilt of a murther.
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To pitch or throw one's self headlong or violently forward, as a horse does.
Some wild colt, which . . . flings and plunges.
- To bet heavily and with seeming recklessness on a race, or other contest; in an extended sense, to risk large sums in hazardous speculations. [Cant]
Phrases & Compounds
- Plunging fire
- firing directed upon an enemy from an elevated position.
Plunge
n.
- The act of thrusting into or submerging; a dive, leap, rush, or pitch into, or as into, water; as, to take the water with a plunge.
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Hence, a desperate hazard or act; a state of being submerged or overwhelmed with difficulties. [R.]
She was brought to that plunge, to conceal her husband's murder or accuse her son.
And with thou not reach out a friendly arm, To raise me from amidst this plunge of sorrows?
- The act of pitching or throwing one's self headlong or violently forward, like an unruly horse.
- Heavy and reckless betting in horse racing; hazardous speculation. [Cant]
Phrases & Compounds
- Plunge bath
- an immersion by plunging; also, a large bath in which the bather can wholly immerse himself.
- Plunge battery
- a voltaic battery so arranged that the plates can be plunged into, or withdrawn from, the exciting liquid at pleasure.