Definition of "sink"

sink

/sɪŋk/

verb
third-person singular simple present sinks, present participle sinking, simple past sank or sunk, past participle sunk or sunken
1. (heading, physical) To move or be moved into something.
  1. (ergative) To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
  2. (transitive) To (directly or indirectly) cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.
  3. (transitive) To push (something) into something.
    Quotations
    Before installing the new surfacing material, sink any protruding nails.
    1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, page 11
  4. (transitive) To make by digging or delving.
  5. (transitive, snooker, pool, billiards, golf) To pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole.
    Quotations
    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. (heading, social) To diminish or be diminished.
  1. (intransitive, figuratively, of the heart or spirit) To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.
    Quotations
    But open converse is there none,⁠So much the vital spirits sink⁠To see the vacant chair, and think,‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’
    1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto XX, 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, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library
    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. (transitive, figurative) To cause to decline; to depress or degrade.
    Quotations
    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, [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
  3. (intransitive) To demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals.
    Quotations
    Who would sink so low as to steal change from veterans?
    2013 April 24, Steve Henschel, Niagara This Week
3. (transitive, slang, archaic) To conceal and appropriate.
  Quotations
  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. (transitive, slang, archaic) To keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore.
  Quotations
  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”
5. (transitive, slang) To drink (especially something alcoholic).
  Quotations
  […] 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
6. (transitive, slang) To pay absolutely.
  Quotations
  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. (transitive, slang, archaic) To reduce or extinguish by payment.
8. (intransitive) To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength.
  Quotations
  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, [Act IV, scene iii]
  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. (intransitive, archaic) To die.
  Quotations
  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
  […] 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
10. (intransitive) To decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height.
  Quotations
  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
  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., […]
noun
plural sinks
1. A basin used for holding water for washing.
  Quotations
  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
2. A drain for carrying off wastewater.
3. (geology) A 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. (ecology) A habitat that cannot support a population on its own but receives the excess of individuals from some other source.
8. (uncountable) Descending motion; descent.
  1. (baseball) The motion of a sinker pitch.
9. (computing, programming) An object or callback that captures events; an event sink.
10. (graph theory) A destination vertex in a transportation network.
11. (graph theory) A 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. (theater) A stage trapdoor for shifting scenery.
15. (mining) An excavation smaller than a shaft.
16. (game development) One or several systems that remove currency from the game's economy, thus controlling or preventing inflation.

Definition of "sink"

sink

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noun

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