Sinking - Definition of Sinking at Define.com Dictionary and Thesaurus (define Sinking)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Sink \Sink\ (s[i^][ng]k), verb (used without an object) [imp. {Sunk} (s[u^][ng]k), or ({Sank} (s[a^][ng]k)); p. p. {Sunk} (obs. {Sunken}, -- now used as adjective); p. pr. & vb. n. {Sinking}.] [OE. sinken, AS. sincan; akin to D. zinken, OS. sincan, G. sinken, Icel. s["o]kkva, Dan. synke, Sw. sjunka, Goth. siggan, and probably to E. silt. Cf. {Silt}.]

1. To fall by, or as by, the force of gravity; to descend lower and lower; to decline gradually; to subside; as, a stone sinks in water; waves rise and sink; the sun sinks in the west.

I sink in deep mire. --Ps. lxix. 2.

2. To enter deeply; to fall or retire beneath or below the surface; to penetrate.

The stone sunk into his forehead. --1 San. xvii. 49.

3. Hence, to enter so as to make an abiding impression; to enter completely.

Let these sayings sink down into your ears. --Luke ix. 44.

4. To be overwhelmed or depressed; to fall slowly, as so the ground, from weakness or from an overburden; to fail in strength; to decline; to decay; to decrease.

I think our country sinks beneath the yoke. --Shak.

He sunk down in his chariot. --2 Kings ix. 24.

Let not the fire sink or slacken. --Mortimer.

5. To decrease in volume, as a river; to subside; to become diminished in volume or in apparent height.

The Alps and Pyreneans sink before him. --Addison.

Syn: To fall; subside; drop; droop; lower; decline; decay; decrease; lessen.

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Sinking \Sink"ing\, a. & n. from {Sink}.

{Sinking fund}. See under {Fund}.

{Sinking head} (Founding), a riser from which the mold is fed as the casting shrinks. See {Riser}, noun, 4.

{Sinking pump}, a pump which can be lowered in a well or a mine shaft as the level of the water sinks.

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

sinking

noun

1: a descent as through liquid (especially through water); "they still talk about the sinking of the Titanic"

2: a slow fall or decline (as for lack of strength); "after several hours of sinking an unexpected rally rescued the market"; "he could not control the sinking of his legs"

3: a feeling caused by uneasiness or apprehension; "with a sinking heart"; "a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach" [syn: {sinking feeling}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

217 Moby Thesaurus words for "sinking": Brownian movement, advance, aging, angular motion, anxious, apprehensive, ascending, ascent, axial, axial motion, back, back-flowing, backflowing, backing, backward, backward motion, bad, baptism, burial, career, climbing, collapsing, coming apart, concavity, course, cracking, crumbling, current, de-escalation, debasement, decadent, deciduous, declining, declivitous, decurrent, deepening, degenerate, degradation, dejected, demotion, depressed, depression, descendant, descending, descent, desolate, despaired of, despairing, deteriorating, detrusion, digging, diminishing, diminution, dip, dipping, disintegrating, doleful, dolorous, done for, doting, dousing, down, down-reaching, down-trending, downcoming, downfalling, downgoing, downhill, downsinking, downward, downward motion, draining, drift, driftage, drifting, drilling, drooping, dropping, duck, ducking, dunking, dwindling, dying, ebbing, effete, engulfment, excavation, expiring, facing death, fading, failing, falling, flagging, flight, flow, flowing, fluent, flux, flying, forlorn, forward motion, fragmenting, fretful, getting on, given up, going, going to pieces, growing old, gyrational, gyratory, hauling down, heavy-laden, hollowness, hopeless, immergence, immersion, in articulo mortis, in extremis, incapable of life, inundation, jittery, jumpy, languishing, low, lowering, marcescent, mining, miserable, moribund, mounting, mournful, near death, nervous, nonviable, oblique motion, on the descendant, on the downgrade, ongoing, onrush, passage, passing, pining, plummeting, plunging, probing, progress, progressive, queasy, radial motion, random motion, receding, reduction, reflowing, refluence, refluent, reflux, regression, regressive, retiring, retreating, retrograde, retrogression, retrogressive, rising, rotary, rotational, rotatory, run, running, rush, rushing, sagging, senescent, set, setting, shaky, shrinking, shriveling, sideward, sideward motion, sinkage, sliding, slipping, slipping away, slumping, soaring, souse, sousing, sternway, stream, streaming, stricken, submergence, submerging, submersion, subsiding, tabetic, tense, terminal, thrusting under, tottering, traject, trajet, trend, tumbledown, tunneling, uneasy, unquiet, up-trending, upward, upward motion, waning, wasting, wilting, withering, woeful, worsening