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Plumb line   /pləm laɪn/   Listen
Plumb line

noun
1.
A cord from which a metal weight is suspended pointing directly to the earth's center of gravity; used to determine the vertical from a given point.  Synonym: perpendicular.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Plumb line" Quotes from Famous Books



... that the eye and hand need such guides shows how untrustworthy the senses are. A similar argument occurs in Luc. 86. Perpendiculum is a plumb line, norma a mason's square, the word being probably a corruption of the Greek [Greek: gnomon] (Curt. Grundz p. 169, ...
— Academica • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... of amateur carpenter tools. You do not need to say that you are an amateur. The dealer will find that out when you ask him for an easy-running broad-ax or a green-gage plumb line. He will sell you a set of amateur's tools that will be made of old sheet-iron with basswood handles, and the saws will double up like ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... plumb line. Girl, you're a wonder. Took me four months to learn to read the card; then I didn't have it down as fine as you have. Will you ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea - Or The Loss of The Lonesome Bar • Janet Aldridge

... time of their passage at various stages noted. He thus found, correctly, that their velocity increased. It is also said that he observed that bodies always fell a little to the eastward of the plumb line, and thence concluded that the earth revolved on its axis. He made careful experiments with billiard balls, discovering that the {614} momentum of the impact always was preserved entire in the motion of the balls struck. He measured forces by the weight and speed of the bodies ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith

... N. verticality; erectness &c. adj.; perpendicularity &c. 216a; right angle, normal; azimuth circle. wall, precipice, cliff. elevation, erection; square, plumb line, plummet. V. be vertical &c. adj.; stand up, stand on end, stand erect, stand upright; stick up, cock up. render vertical &c. adj.; set up, stick up, raise up, cock up; erect, rear, raise on its legs. Adj. vertical, upright, erect, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus



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