Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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}, n., 4.
{Sinking pump}, a pump which can be lowered in a well or a
mine shaft as the level of the water sinks.
Fund \Fund\, n. [OF. font, fond, nom. fonz, bottom, ground, F.
fond bottom, foundation, fonds fund, fr. L. fundus bottom,
ground, foundation, piece of land. See {Found} to establish.]
1. An aggregation or deposit of resources from which supplies
are or may be drawn for carrying on any work, or for
maintaining existence.
2. A stock or capital; a sum of money appropriated as the
foundation of some commercial or other operation
undertaken with a view to profit; that reserve by means of
which expenses and credit are supported; as, the fund of a
bank, commercial house, manufacturing corporation, etc.
3. pl. The stock of a national debt; public securities;
evidences (stocks or bonds) of money lent to government,
for which interest is paid at prescribed intervals; --
called also {public funds}.
4. An invested sum, whose income is devoted to a specific
object; as, the fund of an ecclesiastical society; a fund
for the maintenance of lectures or poor students; also,
money systematically collected to meet the expenses of
some permanent object.
5. A store laid up, from which one may draw at pleasure; a
supply; a full provision of resources; as, a fund of
wisdom or good sense.
An inexhaustible fund of stories. --Macaulay.
{Sinking fund}, the aggregate of sums of money set apart and
invested, usually at fixed intervals, for the
extinguishment of the debt of a government, or of a
corporation, by the accumulation of interest.
Source : WordNet®
sinking fund
n : a fund accumulated regularly in a separate account and used
to redeem debt securities