plunging

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of plunge

1. not comparableThat descends steeply.
2. not comparableAimed from higher ground, as fire upon an enemy.
3. not comparableVery low-cut.

plural plungings

1. An occurrence of putting or sinking under water or other fluid.
2. A headlong violent motion like that of a horse trying to throw its rider.

   It pulled up with a mighty plunging of horses at the overturned chaise.

   1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 20

   2 more examples

   Like one who after a night of drunken revelry hies to his bed, still reeling, but with conscience yet pricking him, as the plungings of the Roman race-horse but so much the more strike his steel tags into him; […].

   1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick; or The Whale

   Then followed a confusion of kicks, cuffs, tramplings and plungings, accompanied by a thunderous intermingling of volleyed curses, and finally a bitter apostrophe to the mule, which must have broken its spirit, for hostilities seemed to cease from that moment.

   1881, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), The Prince and The Pauper, Complete