Hypertext Webster Gateway: "plunging"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Plunge \Plunge\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Plunged}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Plunging}.] [OE. ploungen, OF. plongier, F. plonger, fr.
(assumed) LL. plumbicare, fr. L. plumbum lead. See {Plumb}.]
1. To thrust into water, or into any substance that is
penetrable; to immerse; to cause to penetrate or enter
quickly and forcibly; to thrust; as, to plunge the body
into water; to plunge a dagger into the breast. Also used
figuratively; as, to plunge a nation into war. ``To plunge
the boy in pleasing sleep.'' --Dryden.

Bound and plunged him into a cell. --Tennyson.

We shall be plunged into perpetual errors. --I.
Watts.

2. To baptize by immersion.

3. To entangle; to embarrass; to overcome. [Obs.]

Plunged and graveled with three lines of Seneca.
--Sir T.
Browne.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Plunge \Plunge\, n.
1. The act of thrusting into or submerging; a dive, leap,
rush, or pitch into, or as into, water; as, to take the
water with a plunge.

2. Hence, a desperate hazard or act; a state of being
submerged or overwhelmed with difficulties. [R.]

She was brought to that plunge, to conceal her
husband's murder or accuse her son. --Sir P.
Sidney.

And with thou not reach out a friendly arm, To raise
me from amidst this plunge of sorrows? --Addison.

3. The act of pitching or throwing one's self headlong or
violently forward, like an unruly horse.

4. Heavy and reckless betting in horse racing; hazardous
speculation. [Cant]

{Plunge bath}, an immersion by plunging; also, a large bath
in which the bather can wholly immerse himself.

{Plunge}, or {plunging}, {battery} (Elec.), a voltaic battery
so arranged that the plates can be plunged into, or
withdrawn from, the exciting liquid at pleasure.


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