Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Exactly vertical: Describing something that is perfectly straight up and down, aligned with gravity.
   • Complete, absolute: Used as an intensifier to mean "utterly" or "completely."

2. Adverb:

   • Exactly, precisely: Directly or exactly at a particular point.
   • Completely, utterly: Used as an intensifier, often informally, to mean "totally."

3. Noun:

   • A weight on a line: A small, heavy weight (a plumb bob), typically made of metal, attached to a cord (a plumb line), used to find a vertical line or test for depth.

4. Verb:

   • To make vertical: To adjust something so it is exactly vertical using a plumb line.
   • To measure depth: To determine the depth of water using a weighted line.
   • To examine deeply: To investigate or understand something thoroughly and in great depth.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:

  • The wall must be plumb before you install the cabinets.
  • That's plumb nonsense!

• Adverb:

  • The ball landed plumb in the middle of the target.
  • I'm plumb exhausted after that long hike.

• Noun:

  • The carpenter used a plumb to check if the post was straight.

• Verb:

  • The mason will plumb the door frame during installation.
  • Sailors used to plumb the ocean's depth with a lead line.
  • The detective tried to plumb the motives behind the crime.

Advanced Usage

• "Out of plumb": Not vertical; crooked.

  • The old fence post is out of plumb and needs to be straightened.

• "Plumb the depths (of something)": To reach or experience the most extreme, lowest, or worst point of something, often an emotion or situation.

  • The film plumbs the depths of human despair.

Variants and Related Words

• Plumb line (n): A cord with a plumb bob attached, used for finding a vertical line or testing depth.
• Plumber (n): A person who installs and repairs pipes (historically, pipes were made of lead, from Latin for lead).
• Plumbing (n): The system of pipes in a building; the work of a plumber.

Synonyms

• Adjective (vertical): Perpendicular, straight, true.
• Adverb (completely): Absolutely, totally, utterly.
• Verb (examine): Probe, fathom, investigate.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Plumb in (v): To connect something (like an appliance) to a water supply.
  • We need to plumb in the new washing machine.

Related Idioms

• Plumb crazy/loco (adj, informal): Completely crazy or insane.
  • His plan to sail around the world alone sounds plumb crazy to me.

Adjective

1. exactly vertical
   • the tower of Pisa is far out of plumb

Adverb

1. exactly
   • fell plumb in the middle of the puddle
2. conforming to the direction of a plumb line
3. completely; used as intensifiers
   • clean forgot the appointment
   • I'm plumb (or plum) tuckered out

Noun

1. the metal bob of a plumb line

Verb

1. adjust with a plumb line so as to make vertical
2. examine thoroughly and in great depth
3. weight with lead
4. measure the depth of something