plunge

«plunge» in Mova's school dictionary: to jump or fall suddenly and steeply, especially into water — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (plunge, plunges, plunged, plunging); noun (a plunge, plunges)

meaning for a pupil

1) To plunge is to jump or fall suddenly and steeply, especially into water. tree →

2) To plunge something into something is to push it in quickly and hard. tree →

3) To plunge (of prices, temperatures or numbers) is to fall suddenly by a lot. tree →

4) To plunge into an activity is to start it eagerly and with energy. tree →

5) (noun) A plunge is a sudden jump or fall, or a quick swim. tree →

6) To be plunged into darkness is to lose all light suddenly. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories, plunge makes action dramatic: «the car plunged off the cliff», «the room was plunged into darkness». In maths, science and news, temperatures or prices «plunge» means they drop fast, often shown on a graph. In everyday life, «take the plunge» means finally do something brave or new. Common phrases: «take the plunge», «plunge into», «plunged into darkness», «temperatures plunged», «plunge pool».

examples

• The diver plunged into the deep pool. tree →
• The lights went out and we were plunged into darkness. tree →
• Temperatures plunged to minus ten overnight. tree →
• She plunged her hands into the warm soapy water. tree →
• After weeks of thinking, Dad took the plunge and bought a dog. tree →
• The class plunged into the art project. tree →
• The price of the toy plunged after Christmas. tree →
• The graph shows a sharp plunge in sales in March. tree →
• Once again the road was plunged in darkness. tree →

note

Regular verb: plunged, plunging. A «plunger» is a tool for unblocking sinks and toilets. «Plunging» can describe a steep drop (a plunging cliff). In maths, a «plunge» means a sharp decrease, much bigger than a small dip.

In the corpora

• Kingfishers plunge in beak first, and Japan's bullet train was given a kingfisher-shaped nose to make it quieter.
• Duikers are small forest antelopes whose name means diver in Afrikaans, because they plunge into thick bushes to escape.
• A great grey owl can plunge through deep snow to grab a vole it has only heard.
• Yet wilt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «plunge» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.