sinking in
Becoming gradually clear
Sinking in describes the gradual process of something becoming fully understood or emotionally realized.
Information or news sinks in when it moves from surface awareness to deeper comprehension: It took a few days for the loss to really sink in.
The phrase captures how significant facts or feelings need time to penetrate consciousness—you may hear something immediately but not truly grasp it until later: Is any of this sinking in?
- gravityMutual mass attraction
- comprehensionMental understanding of meaning
- submersionBeing entirely underwater
- realizationGrasping what's true
- percolatingSlowly seeping through
incorporation · integration · clicking · light bulb moment · penny dropping · understanding · deep understanding · recognition · epiphany · dawning · awareness · resonance · establishment · descent · penetration · engulfment · entrenchment · settling
- becoming establishedrooting, settling, entrenchment, embedding, taking hold
sinking inslipping away
Gradually leaving or diminishing
fading · evaporating · escaping · rolling off · sliding off
sinking indenial
Refusal to accept reality
blocking out · compartmentalizing · dissociating · repressing