to sink
- verb
- /sɪŋk/
- However, a small Swedish force sank most of their ships.
- sink a ship
- sink a vessel
One person has to be that way to sink the entire ship.
- One person has to be that way to sink the entire ship.
- The dictators say they will sink the ships, Dunsterville says.
- This piece of crap is going to sink you and sink your career.
- One mistake won't sink the ship.
- No look, the guy said there was a fat storm and that's what sunk the God damn ship.
- So this kind of loose talk really sinks nations.
- They they burned down a few pirate townships, sunk a few pirate vessels and they came home.
- It's the small leaks that sink great ships or is it small strokes fell great oaks?
Examples
-
We are here because a Japanese cargo ship sank in the Pacific.
-
Minutes after the collision, the ship broke apart and sank, pulling many down with it.
Academic text (2013) -
But now watch what happens when we sink our boat that hasn't been treated.
-
One mistake won't sink the ship.
-
The rig itself burned and sank to the ocean floor two days later.
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This is a Japanese cannery ship... ...that was attacked and sunk near French Polynesia.
-
That same day the liner Arabia was sunk by torpedoes off the Greek coast.
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When the ship foundered, he roped himself to the container and sank beneath the waves.
Academic text (2015) -
My notebook and my box lunch sank, and I lost all my pens and pencils.
Fiction book (1993) -
The heavy cargo caused the ship to sink quickly after hitting the iceberg.
Synonyms
To put something completely under water or another liquid
To put something under the surface of water
Antonyms
Idioms
- Informal
A way to say there are almost all things you can think of
- Informal
A warning that careless talk can cause trouble by revealing secrets
- Informal
Almost everything possible is present, even things you do not need
- Informal
To fail very quickly and completely with no chance to get better
- Informal
To get stuck in a problem that keeps getting worse and is hard to leave
Phrasal Verbs
Compounds
- Informal
A very large number of things, often including items that are not needed
- Specialized
A metal part that takes heat away from electronic parts so they do not get too hot
How Damaging
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Etymology
Sink comes from the Old English word sincan meaning 'to go down'. To sink a ship is to make it go 'down' under the water, so the verb keeps the idea of causing something to fall below the surface.