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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



... buy a set 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 a ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... 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

... 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

... 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



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