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.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /sɪŋk/
• (Baltimore, New Orleans) IPA^(key): /zɪŋk/

• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (US)

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

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 (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. (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) To make by digging or delving.

      to sink a well in the ground

   5. (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 heart or spirit) To experience apprehension, disappointment, dread, or momentary depression.
      • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XX, page 34:

        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.’

      • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC:

        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, chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company:

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

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

      to sink one's reputation

      • 1613 (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), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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 April 24, Steve Henschel, Niagara This Week:

        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) To drink (especially something alcoholic).
   • 2021, Barbara Copperthwaite, The Girl in the Missing Poster:

     […] 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.

6. (transitive, slang) To pay absolutely.
   • 2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian‎:

     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.

   I have sunk thousands of pounds into this project.

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

   to sink the national debt

8. (intransitive) To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fail in strength.
   • 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, published 1623, →OCLC, [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

9. (intransitive, archaic) To die.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:die

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1956, Carlile Aylmer Macartney, October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929–1945, volume 1, page 174:

     […] 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.

10. (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:

      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 past instead of sank is not uncommon, but may be considered non-standard. See also the obsolete sench.

• (descend into a liquid, etc): descend, founder, 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.
   • 2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1:

     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.

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. (ecology) 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. (baseball) The motion of a sinker pitch.

      Jones has a two-seamer with heavy sink.

9. (computing, programming) An object or callback that captures events; an event sink.
10. (graph theory) A destination vertex in a transportation network.
11. (graph theory) 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.
13. A depression in a stereotype plate.
14. (theater) A stage trapdoor for shifting scenery.
15. (mining) An excavation smaller than a shaft.
16. (game development) One or several systems that remove currency from the game's economy, thus controlling or preventing inflation.

    Antonym: faucet

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

• (antonym(s) of “graph theory”): source

• (washbasin): vessel sink

• Honey, I sunk the boat, The Grammarphobia Blog

• -kins, inks, k'ins, kins, skin

• IPA^(key): /səŋk/

From Dutch zinken, from Middle Dutch sinken, from Old Dutch *sincan, from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”).

sink (present sink, present participle sinkende, past participle gesink)

1. (intransitive) to sink

From Dutch zink, from German Zink.

sink (uncountable)

1. zinc

Borrowed from German Zink, probably via Russian цинк (cink).

• IPA^(key): /siŋk/

sink (definite accusative sinki, plural sinklər)

1. zinc

Borrowed from German Schinken.

sink (genitive singi, partitive sinki)

1. ham

• sink in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)

From German Zink.

• IPA^(key): /sɪŋ̊k/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ̊k

sink n (genitive singular sinks, uncountable)

1. (metal) zinc

• sinksalva

Borrowed from German Zink.

• Rhymes: -ɪŋ̊k

sink n (genitive singular sinks, no plural)

1. zinc (chemical element)

• skin

Inherited from French cinq (“five”).

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃k/
• Rhymes: -ɛ̃k

sink

1. five

Borrowed from English sink.

• IPA^(key): /sɪnk/
• Rhymes: -ɪnk

sink m (plural sinkijiet)

1. sink

   Synonym: mejjilla

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