The Collaborative International Dictionary
Plunge \Plunge\, n.
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.
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Hence, a desperate hazard or act; a state of being submerged or overwhelmed with difficulties. [R.]
She was brought to that plunge, to conceal her husband's murder or accuse her son.
--Sir P. Sidney.And with thou not reach out a friendly arm, To raise me from amidst this plunge of sorrows?
--Addison. The act of pitching or throwing one's self headlong or violently forward, like an unruly horse.
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Heavy and reckless betting in horse racing; hazardous speculation. [Cant]
Plunge bath, an immersion by plunging; also, a large bath in which the bather can wholly immerse himself.
Plunge battery, or plunging battery (Elec.), a voltaic battery so arranged that the plates can be plunged into, or withdrawn from, the exciting liquid at pleasure.
Usage examples of "plunge bath".
The men who would give Willie his six-o'clock plunge bath would arrive in plenty of time, but who was to stay with him during the afternoon?
It was night and a fire burned in the pit of the old plunge bath, its smoke churning about the arched ceiling where the wind caught and sucked the smoke out of a small window.
DRUMMOND emerged from the hot room, dropped his towel on the tiled floor and dived into the plunge bath, swimming down to touch the brightly coloured mosaic face of Kali, the Great Mother, staring blindly into eternity through the green water as she had done for a thousand years.
They shared its wallowing trough as a plunge bath and had a communal mess.
Water had long ceased to flow through the taps, but Kerans maintained a reservoir in the plunge bath, carefully purified in a home-made still on the roof and piped in through the window.