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plunging |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Plunge \Plunge\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Plunged}; p. pr & vb n. {Plunging}.] [OE. ploungen OF plongier F. plonger, fr (assumed) LL plumbicare fr L. plumbum lead. See {Plumb}.] 1. 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. ``To plunge the boy in pleasing sleep.'' --Dryden. Bound and plunged him into a cell. --Tennyson. We shall be plunged into perpetual errors. --I. Watts. 2. To baptize by immersion. 3. To entangle; to embarrass; to overcome. [Obs.] Plunged and graveled with three lines of Seneca. --Sir T. Browne. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Plunge \Plunge\, n. 1. 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. 2. 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. --Sir P. Sidney. And with thou not reach out a friendly arm, To raise me from amidst this plunge of sorrows? --Addison. 3. The act of pitching or throwing one's self headlong or violently forward, like an unruly horse. 4. Heavy and reckless betting in horse racing; hazardous speculation. [Cant] {Plunge bath}, an immersion by plunging; also a large bath in which the bather can wholly immerse himself. {Plunge}, or {plunging}, {battery} (Elec.), a voltaic battery so arranged that the plates can be plunged into or withdrawn from the exciting liquid at pleasure.
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