sink

present singular third person sinks · participle present sinking · past sank · dialectal past sunk · participle past sunk · archaic participle past sunken

1. To move or be moved into something.
   1. ergativephysicalheadingTo descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.

      A stone sinks in water.  The sun gradually sank in the west.

      Synonyms: bury, descend, founder, go down, dip, dunk, submerge

   2. physicaltransitiveheadingTo (directly or indirectly) cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.

      An iceberg sank the Titanic.  British battleships sank the Bismarck.

   3. physicaltransitiveheadingTo push (something) into something.

      The joint will hold tighter if you sink a wood screw through both boards.  The dog sank its teeth into the delivery man's leg.

      2 more examples

      Before installing the new surfacing material, sink any protruding nails.

      1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 11

      I have to take the turn, sink hooks and nails so I'll return And it could get me every time, but I must taste fire Infectious is the flame that burns

      2014 May 9, “Melting of My Marrow”, in Killer Be Killed, performed by Killer Be Killed

   4. physicaltransitiveheadingTo make by digging or delving.

      to sink a well in the ground

      1 more example

      As was the case with the City & South London, powers were taken to sink shafts from temporary staging in the river, about 240 ft. from the south bank, from which to begin boring the tunnels, and the first pile for the staging was driven on June 18, 1894.

      1958 August 28, T. S. Lascelles, “Diamond Jubilee of the Waterloo & City Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 518

   5. physicaltransitiveball gamesTo pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole.

      My sister beats me at pool in public a second time. I claim some dignity back by potting two of my balls before Tammy sinks the black.

      2008, Edward Keating, The Joy of Ex: A Novel

2. To diminish or be diminished.
   1. figurativelyintransitivesocialheadingTo experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.

      Peter's heart sank. "Don't you think it is dreadful?" he asked.

      1915, Thornton W. Burgess, chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company

      2 more examples

      But open converse is there none, ⁠So much the vital spirits sink ⁠To see the vacant chair, and think, ‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’

      1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 34

      I tried, but I could not wake him. This caused me a great fear, and I looked around terrified. Then indeed, my heart sank within me. Beside the bed, as if he had stepped out of the mist, or rather as if the mist had turned into his figure, for it had entirely disappeared, stood a tall, thin man, all in black.

      1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC

   2. figurativelytransitivesocialheadingTo cause to decline; to depress or degrade.

      to sink one's reputation

      2 more examples

      And if I have a conscience, let it sink me

      1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

      Thy cruel and unnatural lust of power / Has sunk thy father more than all his years.

      1700, Nicholas Rowe, The Ambitious Stepmother, act II, scene ii

      Synonyms: debase, disparage, humble, abase, bring down to size, cut down to size, debase, defame

   3. intransitivesocialheadingTo demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals.

      Who would sink so low as to steal change from veterans?

      2013 April 24, Steve Henschel, Niagara This Week

3. archaicslangtransitiveTo conceal and appropriate.

   If you are sent with ready money to buy anything at a shop, and happen at that time to be out of pocket, sink the money, and take up the goods on your master's account.

   1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

4. archaicslangtransitiveTo keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore.

   I say not always dishonorable qualifications, but a certain flexibility of disposition; a certain courtly willingness to sink obnoxious truths, and adapt ourselves to the prejudices of the minds of others […]

   1849 December 15, Frederick William Robertson, Sermon 14, “The Principle of Spiritual Harvest”

   Synonyms: brush off, misregard, unheed, brush off, discount, disregard, dissemble, despise

5. slangtransitiveTo drink (especially something alcoholic).

   So let's sink another drink / 'Cause it'll give me time to think

   1981 January 23, Billy Idol, Tony James, “Dancing with Myself”, in Kiss Me Deadly, performed by Generation X

   1 more example

   […] just thought she was wrecked from all the Diamond White ciders she'd been sinking – I'd even bought her a couple of Blastaways, which in hindsight was a mistake.

   2021, Barbara Copperthwaite, The Girl in the Missing Poster

   Synonyms: down, imbibe, pound, drink, hydrate, imbibe, wet one's whistle, wet one's beak

6. slangtransitiveTo pay absolutely.

   I have sunk thousands of pounds into this project.

   1 more example

   for 13 of his 15 years in charge, Burrell sank more money into the farm than he received in revenues, and the estate was £1.5m overdrawn.

   2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian

7. archaicslangtransitiveTo reduce or extinguish by payment.

   to sink the national debt

8. intransitiveTo be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength.

   I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

   1 more example

   then keep an even steady Fire under them, not too fierce at first, lest you scorch them; and let not the Fire sink or slacken, but rather increase till the Hops be near dry'd

   1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry

9. archaicintransitiveTo die.

   However, before the entire mass was detached, a copious oozing of blood took place, when the patient lost from a pint to a pint and a half; and which, doubtless, so lowered him that he never rallied, but sank in about an hour and a half after the operation was completed.

   1865 June 17, C. C. Richards, M.D., &c., “Report of a Case of Multiple Fatty Tumours”, in The Lancet, volume 85, number 2181, London: George Fall, page 650

   1 more example

   […] as September drew towards its close, and reports came from Munich that Gömbös was sinking fast, the Right in their turn were credited by the Prager Presse and by certain foreign journalists, who drew their inspiration from the same sources, with sensational designs.

   1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 174

   Synonyms: forfare, go west, pass away, assume room temperature, auger in, be called home, be gathered to one's fathers, be like the the One

10. intransitiveTo decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height.

    The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him: / Through wind and waves, and storms he works his way

    a. 1746, Joseph Addison, The Tragedy of Cato, act I, scene i

    1 more example

    It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.

    1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

plural sinks

1. A basin used for holding water for washing.

   Roy: The work was fiiine. There was nothing wrong with the work. But they caught him... He pissed in the sink. Jen: Oh. Oh! Roy: Yeah... Jen: Which sink? Roy: All the sinks. Yeah, he basically went on a pee parade around the house. Jen: Oh God, I have to fire him.

   2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1

   Synonyms: basin, washbasin, washbasin for washing fixtures without water supply

2. A drain for carrying off wastewater.
3. geographyA sinkhole.
4. A depression in land where water collects, with no visible outlet.
5. A heat sink.
6. A place that absorbs resources or energy.
7. biologyA habitat that cannot support a population on its own but receives the excess of individuals from some other source.
8. uncountableDescending motion; descent.

   An excessive sink rate at touchdown can cause the aircraft's landing gear to collapse.

   1. uncountableball gamesThe motion of a sinker pitch.

      Jones has a two-seamer with heavy sink.

9. computingAn object or callback that captures events.
10. graph theoryA destination vertex in a transportation network.
11. graph theoryA node in directed graph for which all of its edges go into it; one with no outgoing edges.
12. An abode of degraded persons; a wretched place.
13. A depression in a stereotype plate.
14. entertainmentA stage trapdoor for shifting scenery.
15. businessAn excavation smaller than a shaft.
16. game developmentOne or several systems that remove currency from the game's economy, thus controlling or preventing inflation.

    Antonyms: faucet

plural Sinks · alternative Zink · alternative Zinke · alternative Zincke · alternative Zinc · alternative Zingg · alternative Zing · alternative Sinck · alternative Sincke · alternative Sinke · alternative Sync · alternative Synck · alternative Syncke · alternative Synk · alternative Synke

1. A surname from the Germanic languages [in turn originating as an occupation], referring to a musician who played the zincke.