PLUNGE
Plunge, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Plunged; p. pr. & vb. n. Plunging.] Etym:
[OE. ploungen, OF. plongier, F. plonger, fr. (assumed) LL.
plumbicare, fr. L. plumbum lead. See Plumb.]
1. To thrust into water, or into any substance that is penetrable; to immerse; to cause to penetrate or enter quickly and forcibly; to thrust; as, to plunge the body into water; to plunge a dagger into the breast. Also used figuratively; as, to plunge a nation into war. "To plunge the boy in pleasing sleep." Dryden. Bound and plunged him into a cell. Tennyson. We shall be plunged into perpetual errors. I. Watts.
2. To baptize by immersion.
3. To entangle; to embarrass; to overcome. [Obs.] Plunged and graveled with three lines of Seneca. Sir T. Browne.
PLUNGE
Plunge, v. i.
1. To thrust or cast one's self into water or other fluid; to submerge one's self; to dive, or to rush in; as, he plunged into the river. Also used figuratively; as, to plunge into debt. Forced to plunge naked in the raging sea. Dryden. To plunge into guilt of a murther. Tillotson.
2. To pitch or throw one's self headlong or violently forward, as a horse does. Some wild colt, which . . . flings and plunges. Bp. Hall.
3. To bet heavily and with seeming recklessness on a race, or other contest; in an extended sense, to risk large sums in hazardous speculations. [Cant] Plunging fire (Gun.), firing directed upon an enemy from an elevated position.
PLUNGE
Plunge, n.
1. The act of thrusting into or submerging; a dive, leap, rush, or pitch into, or as into, water; as, to take the water with a plunge.