Search the Dictionary

from Sink. Sinking fund. See under Fund. -- Sinking head (Founding), a riser from which the mold is fed as the casting shrinks. See Riser, n., 4. -- Sinking pump, a pump which can be lowered in a well or a mine shaft as the level of the water sinks.

The process of engraving dies.

The extinction of a debt, usually by means of a sinking fund; also, the money thus paid. Simmonds.

To clear off or extinguish, as a debt, usually by means of a sinking fund.

every breach of trust committed with dishonest purpose, as by running away with the ship, sinking or deserting her, etc., or by embezzling the cargo. Kent. Part.

he other falls. Bascule bridge, a counterpoise or balanced drawbridge, which is opened by sinking the counterpoise and thus lifting the footway into the air.

ertain degree of strength in alcoholic liquor, as formerly ascertained by the floating or sinking of glass globules of different specific gravities thrown into it; now ascertained by more accurate meters.

To corroborate; to confirm. -- To bear up, to support; to keep from falling or sinking. "Religious hope bears up the mind under sufferings." Addison.

To keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat; -- with up.

The act or state of declining or sinking. [Obs.] Now was the sun in western cadence low. Milton.

Hollow relief; sculpture in relief within a sinking made for the purpose, so no part of it projects beyond the plain surface around.

choke up; to stop up; to clog. [Obs.] The duke's purpose was to have cloyed the harbor by sinking ships, laden with stones. Speed.

The process by which miners seek to discover metallic lodes. It consist in sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from one pit to another across the direction of the vein, in such manner as to cross all the veins between the two pits.

A drill or cutting tool for countersinking holes.

only in the expression en creux. Thus, engraving en creux is engraving in intaglio, or by sinking or hollowing out the design.

A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline. Dunglison.

A sinking away; a swooning. [Obs.] Bacon.

The state of being depressed; a sinking.

The act of going downward; descent; falling or sinking; declension; degradation. Oblique descension (Astron.), the degree or arc of the equator which descends, with a celestial object, below the horizon of an oblique sphere. -- Right descension, the degree or arc of the equator which descends below the horizon of a ri…

Loss of courage and firmness through fear; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits; consternation. I . . . can not think of such a battle without dismay. Macaulay. Thou with a tiger spring dost leap upon thy prey, And tear his helpless breast, o'erwhelmed with wild dismay. Mrs. Barbauld.…