sink

Also:

4. A place which drains away something, such as water or heat. (Examples: heat sink, time sink, bogon sink.)

A little explanation of the strategy of this game may be in order.

First, make sure the item you are attempting to sink is at least somewhat smaller than what you are trying to sink it in. Otherwise, you could end up being very embarrassed. Next, make sure the game is played in a public place. A mall is preferable, but anywhere where a lot of normal people walk by is good. Regarding the order of play: To make sure you get your junk "up and in the air first", pick something easy to lift. While your opponents are trying to sink VW buses, start hucking a bunch of those free soaps you get in hotel rooms, or something of a similar size and heft. Before they get a chance to sink one object, you've managed to sink the entire Senate/1989 Denver Broncos/every single one of Wilt Chamberlain's illegitimate children.

And always remember, it's not about who wins or loses, it's how many people stare at you.

Another exciting and whacked-out Dungeon feature in NetHack. When you come to a sink, you can basically do three things with it: quaff from it, kick it, or drop a ring in it.

Quaffing from a sink is not quite as dangerous as quaffing from a fountain, but it's close. There is an 11/20 chance of nothing special happening, but 9/20 is a substantial risk. The effects and messages are as follows, each at a 1 in 20 chance except for the first, which is at 11/20:

• "You take a sip of water."
  "You hear snatches of song from the sewers."
  "You hear clanking from the pipes."

  No effect.

• "This water contains toxic wastes!"

  You are affected by a polymorph and all that entails.

• "Gaggg...this tastes like sewage! You vomit."

  You vomit, losing 11 to 30 nutrition points among other effects.

• "The water moves as though of its own will!"

  Uh-oh...you summoned a water elemental. Hope you can handle it. They are fairly slow, so it might be better to run.

• "You find a ring in the sink!"

  Always nice.

• "Some liquid flows from the faucet."

  You get a random potion effect. This can be very dangerous, as you might expect.

• "Eek! There's a sewer rat in the sink!"

  A sewer rat is summoned next to you.

• "Yuk! This water tastes awful."

  You gain 1 experience point (don't ask me, I don't know).

• "You take a sip of scalding hot water."

  If you have intrinsic fire resistance, no effect ("It seems quite tasty."). Otherwise, you lose 1d6 hp.

As far as kicking sinks, there is a 4/5 chance of nothing happening and a 1/5 chance of something interesting. Of the interesting things, there is a 1/3 chance of generating a black pudding and a 1/3 chance of summoning a succubus or incubus ("The dishwasher returns!"). If neither of these occurs, there's another 1/3 chance of the sink coughing up some sludge and a ring. Each of these can only occur once from a given sink. If none of these happen, your foot gets hurt, at a cost of 5 hit points on top of the side effects for wounded legs.

Sinks in general are infamous for swallowing rings. In NetHack, if you drop a ring on the square that a sink is on, you'll get an odd message and the ring will probably be lost (95% chance). The messages give clues to what the ring was, and they aren't too difficult to figure out; refer to the individual ring writeups for each message. For example, dropping a ring of increase accuracy results in "The water flow hits the drain", a ring of increase damage gives "The water's force seems greater now", and a ring of cold resistance gives "the cold water faucet flashes brightly for a moment." The ring of searching and the ring of slow digestion will never be lost in the sink (the former says "You thought your ring got lost in the sink, but here it is!", the latter says "the ring is regurgitated!").

Dropping rings in sinks is one way to identify them, but it works best when you have duplicates because the ring is nearly always lost.

Floating over a sink while levitating causes you to crash-land immediately. Figures.

Sink is the name of a discordian game which was written up in the Principia Discordia (page 00066). The writeup is attributed to:

Ala Hera, E.L., N.S.; Rayville Apple Panthers

The basic idea is to place something in a body of water (bucket, pool, lake, ocean) and then try to sink it. All players may use whatever they wish to try and sink the object, by throwing stuff into the air at it.

Whoever sinks the object should say "I sank it" or "something equally as thoughtful". Objects to be sunk may also be given whatever name players wish to give them.

I am told, by coworkers, that this game can be quite good for getting rid of some stress

A sink or sink node is a node of a directed graph with out-degree 0 - it has no outgoing edges.

From the Telecom Glossary 2K:

1. An absorber of energy.
2. In communications, a device that receives information, control, or other signals from a source.
3. A location at which a specified multiplex structure is terminated through connected equipment removing the frame alignment signal and disassembling the channel time slots.

Draft of ANSI T1A1.5 Glossary, Document #T1A1.5/94-137, July 29, 1994. S. Wolf (ed.). NOTE: The T1-cited terms defined herein are as used in the standards developed by Committee T1. The same terms may be used in a different context with a different meaning.

A sink is also a term used for an energy resource that consumes more energy than it produces. The net energy for a 'sink' is negative, as it takes more energy to extract the resource than the energy that resource will provide.

For example, the deeper an oil deposit is beneath the ground, the more likely that the deposit will be a sink. Since economic theory has no regard for the laws of thermodynamics, the electricity hungry world will rely on sink resources to provide energy, even though they will become increasing inefficient to the point of absurdity.

I tried for a long time but now I am back in the water. My tail is back. I am so happy with it that for 20 minutes I just swim and dive and play with my own tail, chasing it. I am ready, strong again. I call my people and the waves.

I tried awfully hard on land. I hid the knife that my sisters bought. He married the other one and kept me in the little building in the garden. Everyone knew including her, it was normal for them. She didn't enjoy his tidal pull, his pounding, the waves. It gave me so much joy. I sang without my tongue. My tongue was not cut out, that is a myth, one of those stories. It's just that that is how they like the women: voiceless. Silent. Obedient. Admiring. Wounded: oh, he would kiss the poor feet, mangled jangled feet that I am forced to wear on land.

All for love. But: she had children. Three. And I watched as he treated the males as princes and ignored the girl. Mere princess, valueless, to be trained for a strategic wedding. Added value for the land, a pawn in training. She found me. And I pitied her and raised her and told her tales of my home, where people are people, not a gender. Not raised as a separate species.

She disobeyed and her father had her beaten, only where it would not show, and locked up. Bread and water. Cold and cruelty. And suddenly my love was slain. It was as if I was awakened and looked about and saw his cruelty to women and to his wife and his daughter and to me. I was a toy, an amusement, loved only if I kept silent and was crippled by my feet.

I rose and called the waves. The land flooded and the castle was broken and I reached the little princess in time to change her, to give her a tail too.

She is so surprised: in the water. She keeps trying to go up and breathe air and it chokes her. She swims in wild panicky circles, choking on the air, as I drag her out from the castle.

Now we are in the sea and the waters recede, full of broken bodies. Male bodies. I changed every woman I could find and the children if they were young enough and the girls. I called my family, my people. They came and each grabbed one, to drag towards the sea. The ex-humans fight and cough and wail and cry, but we drag them.

And now we sink, each holding one. We sink into the depths. They hold their breath, fighting, but we are so used to our tails and are stronger. And one by one they let the air go and breathe: and breathe the ocean. Breathe. We are entering the dark and the phosphorescent fishes come to see.

Soon we will be home. Just a little further into the ink black: sink.

Sink (si&nsm;k), v. i. [imp. Sunk (su&nsm;k), or (Sank (sa&nsm;k)); p. p. Sunk (obs. Sunken, -- now used as adj.); p. pr. & vb. n. Sinking.] [OE. sinken, AS. sincan; akin to D. zinken, OS. sincan, G. sinken, Icel. sökkva, 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.

 

© Webster 1913

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Sink, v. t.

1.

To cause to sink; to put under water; to immerse or submerge in a fluid; as, to sink a ship.

[The Athenians] fell upon the wings and sank a single ship.
Jowett (Thucyd.).

2.

Figuratively: To cause to decline; to depress; to degrade; hence, to ruin irretrievably; to destroy, as by drowping; as, to sink one's reputation.

I raise of sink, imprison or set free.
Prior.

If I have a conscience, let it sink me.
Shak.

Thy cruel and unnatural lust of power
Has sunk thy father more than all his years.
Rowe.

3.

To make (a depression) by digging, delving, or cutting, etc.; as, to sink a pit or a well; to sink a die.

4.

To bring low; to reduce in quantity; to waste.

You sunk the river repeated draughts.
Addison.

5.

To conseal and appropriate. [Slang]

If sent with ready money to buy anything, and you happen to be out of pocket, sink the money, and take up the goods on account.
Swift.

6.

To keep out of sight; to suppress; to ignore.

A courtly willingness to sink obnoxious truths.
Robertson.

7.

To reduce or extinguish by payment; as, to sink the national debt.

 

© Webster 1913

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Sink, n.

1.

A drain to carry off filthy water; a jakes.

2.

A shallow box or vessel of wood, stone, iron, or other material, connected with a drain, and used for receiving filthy water, etc., as in a kitchen.

3.

A hole or low place in land or rock, where waters sink and are lost; -- called also sink hole. [U. S.]

Sink hole.
(a) The opening to a sink drain.
(b) A cesspool.
(c) Same as Sink, n., 3.

 

© Webster 1913

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Sink (si&nsm;k), n.

The lowest part of a natural hollow or closed basin whence the water of one or more streams escapes by evaporation; as, the sink of the Humboldt River. [Western U. S.]

 

© Webster 1913