Word.ws English Dictionary

sink

/ˈsiŋk//ˈsɪŋk/

sink verb: to descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.

sink: to descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance
Image: Chris McKenna ( Thryduulf ), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

sink (third-person singular simple present sinks, present participle sinking, simple past sank or (dialectal) sunk, past participle sunk or (archaic) sunken)

  1. (ergative, physical) To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
    • A stone sinks in water. The sun gradually sank in the west.
  2. (physical, transitive) To (directly or indirectly) cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.
    • An iceberg sank the Titanic. British battleships sank the Bismarck.
  3. (physical, transitive) To push (something) into something.
    • Before installing the new surfacing material, sink any protruding nails.1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 11
    • I have to take the turn, sink hooks and nails so I'll return
      And it could get me every time, but I must taste fire
      Infectious is the flame that burns2014 May 9, “Melting of My Marrow”, in Killer Be Killed, performed by Killer Be Killed
  4. (physical, transitive) To make by digging or delving.
    • to sink a well in the ground
    • As was the case with the City & South London, powers were taken to sink shafts from temporary staging in the river, about 240 ft. from the south bank, from which to begin boring the tunnels, and the first pile for the staging was driven on June 18, 1894.1958 August, T. S. Lascelles, “Diamond Jubilee of the Waterloo & City Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 518
  5. (physical, transitive) To pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole.
    • 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
  6. (figuratively, intransitive, social) To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.
    • But open converse is there none,
      ⁠So much the vital spirits sink
      ⁠To see the vacant chair, and think,
      ‘How good! how kind! and he is gone.’1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, 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...1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC
  7. (figuratively, transitive, social) To cause to decline; to depress or degrade.
    • to sink one's reputation
    • And if I have a conscience, let it sink me1613 (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)...
  8. (intransitive, social) To demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals.
    • Who would sink so low as to steal change from veterans?2013 April 24, Steve Henschel, Niagara This Week
  9. (archaic, slang, transitive) To conceal and appropriate.
    • 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
  10. (archaic, slang, transitive) To keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore.
    • 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”
  11. (slang, transitive) To drink (especially something alcoholic).
    • So let's sink another drink / 'Cause it'll give me time to think1981 January 23, Billy Idol, Tony James, “Dancing with Myself”, in Kiss Me Deadly, performed by Generation X
    • […] 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
  12. (slang, transitive) To pay absolutely.
    • I have sunk thousands of pounds into this project.
    • 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
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (archaic, slang, transitive) To reduce or extinguish by payment.
    • to sink the national debt
  2. (intransitive) To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength.
    • 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...
    • 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'd1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry
  3. (archaic, intransitive) To die.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    forfare, go west, pass away, assume room temperature, auger in, be called home, be gathered to one's fathers, be like the the One, be no more, be with Jesus
  4. (intransitive) To decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height.
    • The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him: / Through wind and waves, and storms he works his waya. 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...1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

Noun

sink (plural sinks)

  1. A basin used for holding water for washing.
    • 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
    Synonyms:
    basin, washbasin, washbasin for washing fixtures without water supply
  2. A drain for carrying off wastewater.
  3. 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. 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.
    • An excessive sink rate at touchdown can cause the aircraft's landing gear to collapse.
    1. (uncountable) The motion of a sinker pitch.
      • Jones has a two-seamer with heavy sink.
  9. An object or callback that captures events.
  10. A destination vertex in a transportation network.
  11. 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.
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A depression in a stereotype plate.
  2. A stage trapdoor for shifting scenery.
  3. An excavation smaller than a shaft.
  4. (game development) One or several systems that remove currency from the game's economy, thus controlling or preventing inflation.
    Antonyms:
    faucet

Proper noun capitalized: Sink

Sink (plural Sinks)

  1. A surname.

sink meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sink in Hindi

basin
चिलमची cilamcī

sink in Tamil

basin
சிங்க் ciṅk

sink in Marathi

to sink, be submerged
बुडणे buḍṇe

sink in Urdu

basin
چِلَمْچی cilamcī
More languagesFewer languages
sink in Bengali
ডোবা ḍōba, ডোবানো ḍōbanō, দমা doma, বেসিং beśiṅ
sink in Telugu
మునుగు munugu, క్రుంకు kruṅku, కుంగు kuṅgu
sink in Malayalam
മുങ്ങുക muṅṅuka, പൂഴുക pūḻuka
sink in Kannada
ತೊಳೆಮರಿಗೆ, ತೊಟ್ಟಿ, ಕೊಚ್ಚೆಕಾಲುವೆ, ಕೊಚ್ಚೆಕೊಳವೆ
sink in Punjabi
ਬਹਿਣਾ bahiṇā, ਖੁੱਸਣਾ khussaṇā
sink in Gujarati
ડૂબવું ḍūbvũ
sink in Odia
ବୁଡ଼ିବା buṛibā, ଗଳିବା gaḷibā
sink in Sanskrit
मज्जति majjati
sink in Assamese
দবা doba, মজা moza
sink in Tagalog
lumubog
sink in Arabic
غَطَسَ ḡaṭasa, مَجْلَى majlā, مَغْسَلَة maḡsala, حَوْض ḥawḍ
sink in Malay
sinki
sink in Indonesian
wastafel, bak cuci
sink in Thai
จม jom, อ่าง àang, อ่างล้างหน้า àang-láang-nâa
sink in Vietnamese
chìm

Examples of sink in a sentence

  • Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook.
  • If the mix is too fluid, the ags can sink away from the surface.
  • There was no sink in the room so we spat out the window.

All 40 example sentences with sink

Synonyms of sink

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of sink

Forms of sink

Verb
third-person singular presentsinks
present participlesinking
pastsank
past participlesunk
past (dialectal)sunk
past participle (archaic)sunken
Noun
pluralsinks
Proper noun
pluralSinks

Past tense of sink: sank

Plural of sink: sinks

Origin of sink

From Middle English synken, from Old English sincan, from Proto-West Germanic *sinkwan, from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”). Compare West Frisian sinke, Low German sinken, Dutch zinken, German sinken, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synke, Swedish sjunka. In the causative sense, it replaced Old English senċan (“make sink”) from Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną.

From the Dutch and northern German surname, from Zink (“cornetto, trumpet-like instrument”).

Words formed from sink

Phrases with sink

8 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sink

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sink

What does sink mean?
Sink means to descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
What is sink in Hindi?
Sink in Hindi is चिलमची (cilamcī). See Sink meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sink?
Sink can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sink?
Sink is pronounced /ˈsɪŋk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of sink?
The past tense of sink is sank.

Words near sink in the dictionary

  1. Sinixts
  2. Sinj
  3. Sinjari
  4. sinjarite
  5. Sinjhu
  6. sink
  7. sink estate
  8. sink estates
  9. sink function
  10. sink functions
  11. sink hole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sink (page history and authors); Sink (page history and authors); बुडणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); ডোবা (Bengali) (page history and authors); కుంగు (Telugu) (page history and authors); പൂഴുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); sink (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖੁੱਸਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ડૂબવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଗଳିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); দবা (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-sink.ogg, En-us-sink.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.