sink

From Old English sincan, 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.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /sɪŋk/

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋk
• Homophones: sync, synch, cinque

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

1. (heading, physical) To move or be moved into something.
   1. (ergative) 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. (transitive) To cause a vessel to sink, generally by making it no longer watertight.
   3. (transitive) To push (something) into something.
      • 1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 11:

        Before installing the new surfacing material, sink any protruding nails.

      The joint will hold tighter if you sink a wood screw through both boards.  The dog sank its teeth into the delivery man's leg.

   4. (transitive, snooker, pool, billiards, golf) To pot; hit a ball into a pocket or hole.
      • 2008, Edward Keating, The Joy of Ex: A Novel

        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.

2. (heading, social) To diminish or be diminished.
   1. (intransitive, figuratively, of the human heart) To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.
      • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Ch.21:

        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, all in black.

      • 1915, Thornton W. Burgess, The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston; ch. XIX:

        Peter's heart sank. "Don't you think it is dreadful?" he asked.

   2. (transitive, figuratively) To cause to decline; to depress or degrade.

      to sink one's reputation

      • c. 1613, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act II, scene i:

        And if I have a conscience, let it sink me

      • 1700, Nicholas Rowe The Ambitious Stepmother, Act II, scene ii:

        Thy cruel and unnatural lust of power / Has sunk thy father more than all his years.

   3. (intransitive) To demean or lower oneself; to do something below one's status, standards, or morals.
      • 2013, Steve Henschel, Niagara This Week, April 24:

        Who would sink so low as to steal change from veterans?

3. (transitive, slang, archaic) To conceal and appropriate.
   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels:

     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.

4. (transitive, slang, archaic) To keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore.
   • 1849 December 15, Frederick William Robertson, Sermon 14, “The Principle of Spiritual Harvest”:

     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 […]

5. (transitive, slang, archaic) To reduce or extinguish by payment.

   to sink the national debt

6. (intransitive) To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     I think our country sinks beneath the yoke.

   • 1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry:

     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'd

7. (intransitive) To decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height.
   • a. 1746, Joseph Addison, The Tragedy of Cato, Act I, scene i:

     The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him: / Through wind and waves, and storms he works his way

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175, page 048:

     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 other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.

• Use of sunk for the simple present instead of sank is not uncommon, but may be considered non-standard.

• (descend into a liquid, etc): descend, go down
• (submerge): dip, dunk, submerge
• (cause (ship, etc) to sink):
• (push (something) into):

a bathroom sink (basin for holding water)

sink (plural sinks)

1. A basin used for holding water for washing
2. A drain for carrying off wastewater
3. (geology) 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. (baseball) The motion of a sinker pitch

   Jones' has a two-seamer with heavy sink.

8. (computing, programming) An object or callback that captures events; event sink
9. (graph theory) a destination vertex in a transportation network

• (basin): basin, washbasin; see also washbasin for washing fixtures without water supply

• (destination vertex): source

• (washbasin): vessel sink

• countersink
• everything but the kitchen sink

• -kins, inks, k'ins, kins, skin

• Honey, I sunk the boat, The Grammarphobia Blog

sink (uncountable)

1. zinc

sink (genitive singi, partitive sinki)

1. ham

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

From German Zink.

• IPA^(key): /sɪŋ̊k/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ̊k

sink n (genitive singular sinks, uncountable)

1. (metal) zinc

• sinksalva

• Rhymes: -ɪŋ̊k

sink n

1. zinc (element)

• skin

sink

1. Alternative spelling of senk

sink m or n (definite singular sinken or sinket) (uncountable)

1. zinc (chemical element, symbol Zn)

• forsinke
• sinksulfat

From German Zink.

• IPA^(key): /sɪŋk/

sink m or n (definite singular sinken or sinket) (uncountable)

1. zinc (chemical element, symbol Zn)

• sinksulfat

• “sink” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

sink

1. (cardinal) five

sink

1. first-person singular present of sinke
2. imperative of sinke