sink

(sĭngk)

v. sank (săngk) or sunk (sŭngk), sunk, sink·ing, sinks

v.intr.

a. To go below the surface of water or another liquid: We watched the leaky inner tube slowly sink.

b. To descend to the bottom of a body of water or other liquid: found the wreck where it had sunk.

a. To fall or drop to a lower level, especially to go down slowly or in stages: The water in the lake sank several feet during the long, dry summer.

b. To subside or settle gradually: Cracks developed as the building sank.

3. To appear to move downward, as the sun or moon in setting.

4. To slope downward; incline: The road sinks as it approaches the stream.

a. To fall or lower oneself slowly, as from weakness or fatigue: The exhausted runner sank to the ground.

b. To feel great disappointment or discouragement: Her heart sank within her.

a. To pass into something; penetrate: The claws sank into the flesh of the prey.

b. To steep or soak: The wine has sunk into my shirt.

7. To pass into a specified condition: She sank into a deep sleep.

a. To deteriorate in quality or condition: The patient is sinking fast. The family sank into a state of disgrace.

b. To diminish, as in value: Gold prices are sinking.

9. To become weaker, quieter, or less forceful: His voice sank to a whisper.

10. To make an impression; become felt or understood: The meaning finally sank in.

v.tr.

1. To cause to descend beneath the surface or to the bottom of a liquid: sink a ship.

a. To cause to penetrate deeply: He sank his sword into the dragon's belly.

b. To force into the ground: sink a piling.

c. To dig or drill (a mine or well) in the earth.

d. To cause to drop or lower: sank the bucket into the well.

e. Sports To propel (a ball or shot) into a hole, basket, or pocket.

3. To cause to be engrossed: "Frank sank himself in another book" (Patricia Highsmith).

a. To make weaker, quieter, or less forceful: She sank her voice when the manager walked by.

b. To reduce in quantity or worth: The bad news will sink markets around the world.

5. To debase the nature of; degrade: The scandal has sunk him in the eyes of many.

6. To bring to a low or ruined state; defeat or destroy: Loss of advertising sank the newspaper.

7. To suppress or hide: He sank his arrogance and apologized.

8. Informal To defeat, as in a game.

9. To invest or spend, often without getting a return or adequate value: I've sunk a lot of money into that car.

10. To pay off (a debt).

1. A water basin fixed to a wall or floor and having a drainpipe and generally a piped supply of water.

2. A cesspool.

3. A sinkhole.

4. A natural or artificial means of absorbing or removing a substance or a form of energy from a system.

5. A place regarded as wicked and corrupt: That city is a sink of corruption.

Idioms:

sink (one's) teeth into Informal

To undertake an endeavor energetically: She sank her teeth into the challenging project.

sink or swim Informal

To fail or succeed without alternative.

[Middle English sinken, from Old English sincan.]

sink′a·ble adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sinking

(ˈsɪŋkɪŋ)

a. a feeling in the stomach caused by hunger or uneasiness

b. (as modifier): a sinking feeling.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	sinking - a descent as through liquid (especially through water); "they still talk about the sinking of the Titanic" settling, subsiding, subsidence - a gradual sinking to a lower level descent - a movement downward immersion, submergence, submerging, submersion - sinking until covered completely with water foundering, going under - (of a ship) sinking
	2.	sinking - a slow fall or decline (as for lack of strength); "after several hours of sinking an unexpected rally rescued the market"; "he could not control the sinking of his legs" decrease, lessening, drop-off - a change downward; "there was a decrease in his temperature as the fever subsided"; "there was a sharp drop-off in sales"
	3.	sinking - a feeling caused by uneasiness or apprehension; "with a sinking heart"; "a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach" sinking feeling anxiety - a vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune

Translations

Bohrung

abaissement enfoncement

affondamento avvallamento naufragio

sinking

[ˈsɪŋkɪŋ]

A. N (= shipwreck) → hundimiento m

B. ADJ

1. (= foundering) a sinking ship (lit) → un barco que se hunde (fig) (= cause) → una causa en declive or que va a pique; (= organization) → una organización en declive or que va a pique

2. with a sinking feeling she picked the phone up → con una sensación de ansiedad contestó el teléfono
that sinking feeling → esa sensación de ansiedad or desazón
with a sinking heart → entristecido

3. (Fin) a sinking pound/dollar → una libra/un dólar cayendo en picado

C. CPD sinking fund N (Fin) → fondo m de amortización

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sinking

[ˈsɪŋkɪŋ]

n [ship] → naufrage m
the sinking of the Titanic → le naufrage du Titanic

adj
a sinking feeling → un serrement de cœur
to get that sinking feeling → avoir le cœur serrésinking fund n (FINANCE) → fonds mpl d'amortissementsink unit n → bloc-évier m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sinking

n (of ship) → Untergang m; (deliberately) → Versenkung f; (of shaft) → Senken nt, → Abteufen nt (spec); (of well) → Bohren nt

adj (Fin) currency → fallend; a sinking ship (lit, fig) → ein sinkendes Schiff; with (a) sinking heart → schweren Herzens; he realized with a sinking heart that … → das Herz wurde ihm schwer, als er merkte, dass …; sinking feeling → flaues Gefühl (im Magen) (inf); I got a horrible sinking feeling when I realized … → mir wurde ganz anders, als ich erkannte …

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sinking

[ˈsɪŋkɪŋ]

1. n (shipwreck) → naufragio

2. adj a or that sinking feeling → una stretta allo stomaco
I have a sinking feeling that things have gone wrong → ho il brutto presentimento che le cose siano andate male
with sinking heart → con la morte nel cuore

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The manner in which the Bishop describes it, as alternately rising and sinking, with some other particulars he narrates, in all this the two correspond.

View in context

Almost in the same instant, with a thunder-boom, the enormous mass dropped into the sea, like Niagara's Table-Rock into the whirlpool; the suddenly relieved hull rolled away from it, to far down her glittering copper; and all caught their breath, as half swinging --now over the sailors' heads, and now over the water --Daggoo, through a thick mist of spray, was dimly beheld clinging to the pendulous tackles, while poor, buried-alive Tashtego was sinking utterly down to the bottom of the sea!

View in context

I venture, therefore, to affirm, that on the theory of the upward growth of the corals during the sinking of the land, [13] all the leading features in those wonderful structures, the lagoon-islands or atolls, which have so long excited the attention of voyagers, as well as in the no less wonderful barrier-reefs, whether encircling small islands or stretching for hundreds of miles along the shores of a continent, are simply explained.

The larger areas, coloured red and blue, are all elongated; and between the two colours there is a degree of rude alternation, as if the rising of one had balanced the sinking of the other.

View in context

At this instant, in the midst of the silver circle illumined by the light of the moon the same whirlpool which had been made by the sinking men was again obvious, and first were seen, rising above the waves, a wisp of hair, then a pale face with open eyes, yet, nevertheless, the eyes of death; then a body, which, after rising of itself even to the waist above the sea, turned gently on its back, according to the caprice of the waves, and floated.

View in context

Toward the middle of the day many of the weaker commenced to succumb and within an hour the people of Barsoom were sinking by thousands into the unconsciousness which precedes death by asphyxiation.

View in context

Just then, by the waning light of the moon which was sinking down to the horizon, I saw a face which was not Conseil's and which I immediately recognised.

View in context

And when she came up she said they had struck a rock; there was a big hole in the bottom of the ship; the water was coming in; and they were sinking fast.

View in context

He laid down the seven of hearts, on which with a broken bit of chalk he had written "800 rubles" in clear upright figures; he emptied the glass of warm champagne that was handed him, smiled at Dolokhov's words, and with a sinking heart, waiting for a seven to turn up, gazed at Dolokhov's hands which held the pack.

View in context

Suddenly the horse under him tumbled into something and, sinking into a snow-drift, began to plunge and fell on his side.

View in context

The evening, I remember, was still and cloudy; the London air was at its heaviest; the distant hum of the street-traffic was at its faintest; the small pulse of the life within me, and the great heart of the city around me, seemed to be sinking in unison, languidly and more languidly, with the sinking sun.

View in context

Yet the ear, it fully knows, By the twanging And the clanging, How the danger ebbs and flows; Yet, the ear distinctly tells, In the jangling And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells - Of the bells - Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells - In the clamour and the clangour of the bells!

View in context