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SINKING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A slow fall or decline (as for lack of strength)
Example:
he could not control the sinking of his legs
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("sinking" is a kind of...):
decrease; drop-off; lessening (a change downward)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A descent as through liquid (especially through water)
Example:
they still talk about the sinking of the Titanic
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural events
Hypernyms ("sinking" is a kind of...):
descent (a movement downward)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sinking"):
settling; subsidence; subsiding (a gradual sinking to a lower level)
immersion; submergence; submerging; submersion (sinking until covered completely with water)
foundering; going under ((of a ship) sinking)
Derivation:
sink (go under)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A feeling caused by uneasiness or apprehension
Example:
a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach
Synonyms:
sinking; sinking feeling
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("sinking" is a kind of...):
anxiety (a vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb sink
Context examples:
It had been a very happy fortnight, and forlorn must be the sinking from it into the common course of Hartfield days.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
His knees were trembling under him, he felt faint, and he staggered back to the bed, sinking down and sitting on the edge of it.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I would not have the shadow of a coolness arise, he repeated, his voice sinking a little, between the two dearest objects I have on earth.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
"My dear Miss Elliot!" exclaimed Mrs Clay, lifting her hands and eyes, and sinking all the rest of her astonishment in a convenient silence.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
“Too late!” she said, sinking back on the bed.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Buck rushed at the splintering wood, sinking his teeth into it, surging and wrestling with it.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
"What richness!" sighed Jo, sinking into the depth of a velour chair and gazing about her with an air of intense satisfaction.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Sinking below the bird and mast, a drowned corpse glanced through the green water; a fair arm was the only limb clearly visible, whence the bracelet had been washed or torn.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Ebbits seemed sinking back into his senility with the tale untold, and I demanded: What of thy sons, Moklan and Bidarshik?
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Such zones are found where two of Earth's tectonic plates collide, with the heavier plate sinking beneath the lighter one and moving material into Earth's interior.
(Major deep carbon sink linked to microbes at volcanic island chains, National Science Foundation)
