sinking

I know not how it wasöbut, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit† There was aniciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heartöan unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.

—Poe, EdgarAllan

We ofthesinking middle class†havenothing to losebut our aitches.

—Orwell, George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair

It isthe onlycase on record of a man swimming toward a sinking ship.

—Yarborough, Ralph