Word.ws English Dictionary

sinking

Syllables: sink·ingUK/ˈsɪŋkɪŋ/

sinking is the gerund of sink.

sinking is the present participle and gerund of sink.

Meaning of sink

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.

See all 34 meanings of sink

Forms of sinking

pluralsinkings

Origin of sinking

From sink + -ing.

Words formed from sinking

Phrases with sinking

Words that rhyme with sinking

Questions about sinking

What is sinking the gerund of?
Sinking is the gerund of sink.
How do you pronounce sinking?
Sinking is pronounced /ˈsɪŋkɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near sinking in the dictionary

  1. Sinkies
  2. sinkiest
  3. sinkijon
  4. sinkin'
  5. sinkiness
  6. sinking
  7. sinking feeling
  8. sinking feelings
  9. sinking fund
  10. sinking funds
  11. sinking heart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sinking (page history and authors); sink (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-sinking.wav.

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