sunk
part of speech
verb form — past participle of sink (sink, sinks, sank, sunk, sinking); adjective (sunk, sunken)
meaning for a pupil
1) Sunk is a form of sink: gone down under water or below a surface, as in the ship had sunk. tree →
2) (informal) If you are sunk, you are in deep trouble with no way out. tree →
3) Sunk is used for things set lower, as in sunk into the sofa. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history and stories: the Titanic sank in 1912 and lies sunk on the sea bed; pirate ships are sunk. In science, objects that are denser than water sink. In the game Battleships you say You sunk my battleship. In everyday talk, If we miss the bus, we're sunk.
examples
- The ship had sunk before help arrived. tree →
- The treasure lay in a sunk ship. tree →
- My heart sank when I saw the score, and it has sunk lower since. tree →
- If we lose the key, we're sunk! (informal) tree →
- She sat sunk in the armchair. tree →
- The stone has sunk to the bottom of the pond. tree →
- The clouds sunk as the evening drew on, and it became dark. tree →
note
Forms: sink (now), sank (past), sunk (after have/has/had): it sank, it has sunk. Common mistake: it sunk yesterday is non-standard; say it sank. Sunken is used before a noun: a sunken ship, sunken treasure.
In the corpora
- The sunk cost fallacy is spending more because you have already spent; money spent is gone whatever you do next.
- Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea, and his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.
- The nations are sunk down in the pit that they made; in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «sunk» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.