plunges

Verb

plunge (third-person singular simple present plunges, present participle plunging, simple past and past participle plunged)

1. (transitive) To thrust into liquid, or into any penetrable substance; to immerse.
   • to plunge the body into water
2. (figuratively, transitive) To cast, stab or throw deep and fast into some thing, state, condition or action.
   • to plunge a dagger into the breast
3. (obsolete, transitive) To baptize by immersion.
4. (intransitive) To dive, leap or rush (into water or some liquid); to submerge oneself.
   • he plunged into the river
5. (figuratively, intransitive) To fall or rush headlong into some thing, action, state or condition.
   • to plunge into debt

   Synonyms:

   slump

6. (intransitive) To pitch or throw oneself headlong or violently forward, as a horse does.
   • [N]ature affects a looſe kinde of liberty, vvhich it cannot indure to have reſtrained: neither fares it othervviſe vvith it, then vvith ſome vvilde colt; which at the firſt taking up, flings and plunges, and vvill ſtand on no ground; but after it hath been ſomvvhile diſciplin'd at the Poſt, is...1648, J[oseph] Hall, chapter LXXXVI, in Select Thoughts: Or, Choice Helps for a Pious Spirit. […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Brooke, […], published 1654, →OCLC, pages 249–250

See all 16 meanings of plunge