plumbs

present tense third-person singular of plumb
as in spans
to measure the depth of (as a body of water) typically with a weighted line plumbed the bay to make sure it was deep enough for the ship

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of plumbs Ophelia’s Got Talent plumbs the depths of the nineteenth-century cult of Ophelia, epitomized in John Everett Millais’s famous painting of her watery death. — Caroline Lillian Schopp, Artforum, 13 May 2026 As Latifi plumbs the industry, what stands out is just how manufactured this content is, and how often the children are being manipulated to perform. — Kristen Martin, The Atlantic, 13 May 2026 Maurizio Cattelan, who also wielded a banana with profound memetic effectiveness, is one of the few other artists whose work has this kind of stickiness, but his recent sculptures have leaned more on the public’s appetite for stunts, whereas Rødland plumbs more mysterious depths. — Chris Wiley, New Yorker, 28 Mar. 2026 This documentary plumbs the issue in a personal, entertaining and thought-provoking way. — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 18 Mar. 2026 This historical novel with relevance for today plumbs the depths of extremism. — Monitor Reviewers, Christian Science Monitor, 21 Nov. 2025 With her steadfast vision and the solid craftsmanship of the clothes, Trotter plumbs still waters to conjure a universe in which control and release coexist. — Vogue, 27 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plumbs
Verb
  • This year, on Sunday, November 1, over 60,000 runners are expected to take part in the marathon, which follows a path that spans all five boroughs, starting on Staten Island and finishing in Central Park.
    — Anna Grace Lee, Vogue, 28 Oct. 2026
  • The project spans 10,683 hectares (about 26,400 acres) and is added to the US government’s FAST-41 Transparency Dashboard to improve oversight of federal permitting reviews.
    — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 27 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • Factory scales up gun production Rheinmetall equipped the 11,500-square-meter facility in just eight months, turning an empty building into an operational manufacturing site.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Many practical questions ultimately depend on which scales Schrödinger’s equation is valid at.
    — Philipp Strasberg, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Plumbs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plumbs. Accessed 3 Nov. 2026.

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