plumb
verb (literary)Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they plumb | |
| he / she / it plumbs | |
| past simple plumbed | |
| past participle plumbed | |
| -ing form plumbing |
- plumb something
to try to understand or succeed in understanding something mysterious 探索；钻研；探究 She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。 He had clearly plumbed the general sense of the message. 他已经清楚地弄清了这条信息的大致意思。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryPlumb is used with these nouns as the object:- depth
Word Originverb Middle English (originally in the sense ‘sounding lead’): via Old French from Latin plumbum ‘lead’. plumb something in. late 19th cent.: back-formation from plumber.
Idioms
plumb the depths of something
to be or to experience an extreme example of something unpleasant 陷入（痛苦等的）深渊；深入…深处 His latest novel plumbs the depths of horror and violence. 他最新的小说充斥着极端恐怖和暴力。 It was at that stage in her life when she plumbed the depths of despair. 正是在她人生的那个阶段，她陷入了绝望的深渊。 The team's poor performances plumbed new depths last night when they lost 10–2. 昨晚这个队的糟糕表现达到了新低纪录，以 2:10 输掉了。 The story plumbed the depths of tabloid journalism. 这个故事完全迎合了小报的低级趣味。