drop

• Put three drops of oil into the mixture.
• A circular horizontal surface of indefinite diameter gave a drop of water weighing 2·10 grains. This is therefore the weight of the maximum drop formed on a flat surface, and it will be seen that it very nearly...

Synonyms: gt gtt gutta

1. (pharmacology) A dose of liquid medicine in the form of a drop (sense 1).

   • My first treatment consisted of one eye drop in each eye which was supposed to determine the condition of the eye and make it easier to examine them the next day. - 1986, Eugene Tinory, Journey from Ammeah: The Story of...
   • The eye is able to hold only about 20 percent of the amount of fluid in a standard eye drop. Therefore, put only one eye drop in your eye at a time. If you have been instructed to use more than one eye drop, wait about...

   Synonyms: gt gtt gutta

2. (pharmacology, chiefly in the plural) A liquid medicine that is intended to be administered in drops (sense 1).

   • ear drops eye drops

   Synonyms: gt gtt gutta

• My aunt asked for just a drop more tea.
• He was thirsty but there wasn’t a drop of water to be found
• They didn’t show a drop of remorse

Synonyms: dash smidgen ace atom atomy aught bissel bit crumb glimpse dab damn diddly glint dot spatter drop dusting fleck glimmer hint flip flyspeck grain

1. (chiefly Australia, UK) A small amount of an alcoholic beverage.

   • He usually enjoys a drop after dinner. She won’t touch a drop while she’s on duty.

   Synonyms: dash smidgen ace atom atomy aught bissel bit crumb glimpse dab damn diddly glint dot spatter drop dusting fleck glimmer hint flip flyspeck grain

2. (chiefly UK) Usually preceded by the: alcoholic spirits in general.

   • It doesn’t matter where you’re from, anyone who enjoys the drop is a friend of mine.
   • She is rather fond of her drops, and is then particularly good-humoured; it is only when she is getting sober that she is querulous and nervous. - 1834, Peregrine Reedpen [pseudonym], “The Survey Continued. Odds and...

   Synonyms: dash smidgen ace atom atomy aught bissel bit crumb glimpse dab damn diddly glint dot spatter drop dusting fleck glimmer hint flip flyspeck grain

3. (Ireland, informal) A single measure of whisky.

   Synonyms: dash smidgen ace atom atomy aught bissel bit crumb glimpse dab damn diddly glint dot spatter drop dusting fleck glimmer hint flip flyspeck grain

1. Often preceded by a defining word: a small, round piece of hard candy, such as a lemon drop or piece of licorice; a lozenge.

2. (architecture) An ornament resembling a pendant; a gutta.

1. The cover mounted on a swivel over a keyhole that rests over the keyhole when not in use to keep out debris, but is swiveled out of the way before inserting the key.

2. (agriculture) A fruit which has fallen off a tree, etc., or has been knocked off accidentally, rather than picked.

   • Drops are another source of juice apple supply. As the pickers pick apples in orchards oriented toward fresh-market or canning apples, apples fall or are accidentally knocked to the ground; these are drops. The only use...
   • Drops are fruit that has fallen to the ground naturally or that is dropped or knocked off during harvest. Drops have no value except for pressing for juice. While the value of drops is usually minimal, they must be...
   • But in the fall, when apples are abundant and cheap, I like to make my own [applesauce]. I'll often buy a few bags of "drops" just for this purpose. Drops are apples that have fallen from the trees instead of being...

3. (American football) A dropped pass.

   • Yet another drop for the Tiger tight end.

4. (law enforcement) A trapdoor (“hinged platform”) on a gallows; a gallows itself.

   • […] and lo! the gallows is built up; the solemn bell tolls through the dismal gray of the early morning, the drop creaks under the guilty feet, and the penalty of crime is paid. - 1862, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady...
   • She. Have you ever seen a man hanged? He. Yes. Once. She. What was it for? He. Murder, of course. She. Murder. Is that so great a sin after all? I wonder how he felt before the drop fell. - 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The...
   • As the prisoners prepared to leave, they had seen Dan and Steve standing together in the breezeway, ‘for all the world like two condemned prisoners on the drop’. - 2003, Ian Jones, Ned Kelly: A Short Life, revised...

5. (online gaming, video games) An item made available for the player to pick up from the remains of a defeated enemy.

6. (technology) A mechanism for lowering something, such as a machine for lowering heavy weights on to a ship's deck, or a device for temporarily lowering a gas jet, etc.

7. (technology) (electrics, telecommunications) An overhead electrical line running from a utility pole to a customer's building or other premises.

   • Do a drop for the telephone gang, then another drop for the Internet gang, both through the ceiling of the wiring closet.

   Synonyms: drop wire service drop

8. (technology) Ellipsis of drop hammer or drop press.

9. (theater) A curtain which falls in front of a theatrical stage; also, a section of (cloth) scenery lowered on to the stage like a curtain.

   • La Cage's upstage drops include two of the St. Tropez harbor (one for the day and another for the night), [... an] ocean drop (used in an Act I dream sequence), and an abstract chandelier drop (used in the second...
   • In The Rover, one of these esthetically important elements was the arrangement of the upstage drops. Originally the drop was split into three sections, with obvious and blatant seams between them. - 2007, Michele...

• That was a long drop, but fortunately I didn’t break any bones.
• The slope of the terrain, shaped like a funnel, squeezed the growing swell of churning snow into a steep, twisting gorge. It moved in surges, like a roller coaster on a series of drops and high-banked turns. - 2012,...

Synonyms: flop decline

1. An act of moving downwards under the force of gravity; a descent, a fall.

2. An instance of making a delivery of people, supplies, or things, especially by parachute out of an aircraft (an airdrop), but also by truck, etc.

   • The delivery driver has to make three more drops before lunch.
   • The spy made the drop, leaving the plans under the tree as arranged.
   • That was how a drug deal went down? […] Karl shook his head and pulled away from the curb, heading for his next drop and feeling distinctly uncomfortable about the mass of cash now keeping the drugs in his bags company....

3. A release (of music, a video game, etc).

   • 2002 saw the drop of a new album whose title riffed on the many magazine cover stories calling Sum 41's music infectious. - 2004, L. S., “Sum 41”, in Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard, editors, The New Rolling Stone...
   • Turned out this was the drop party for popster Effigy's latest release, BeatMeKickMeHoldMe. - 2020 January, Stephen Wright, Processed Cheese, ebook edition, New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:

4. (gambling) The amount of money that a gambler exchanges for chips in a casino.

   • What the first column in the table shows you is how much the casinos won as a percentage of the drop. For example, on the roulette table for every $100 that went into the drop box the casino wonj $22.70 or 22.70%. […]...

5. (law enforcement, informal) Preceded by the: execution by hanging.

   • [A]ll those present shared the all-important political connections required to get a ticket to the execution. News reporters, doctors, and members of the juries had prime spots right by the platform, so that they could...

6. (sports) Usually preceded by the: relegation from one division to a lower one.

7. (sports) (American football) Ellipsis of drop-back.

   • The Tiger quarterback took a one-step drop, expecting his tight end to be open.

8. (sports) (pinball) Ellipsis of drop target.

9. (sports) (rugby) Ellipsis of drop kick.

10. (sports) (golf) Ellipsis of drop shot.

11. (sports) (surfing) A near vertical descent down the face of a breaking wave.

    • You take off, make the steep drop, hear the white water rumbling behind you and feel the spray on your back. - 1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer:

12. (US, banking, dated) An unsolicited credit card issue.

• The drop in demand for oil resulted in a drop in prices.
• [T]he volume of money was expected to fluctuate with the volume of business activity so that a drop in business activity would bring a drop in the volume of money outstanding. […] If the volume of money is reduced, it...

Synonyms: breakdown deterioration dip reduction worsening cut decrement deduction drop extract extraction fall lowering shrinkage

1. (sewing) Of men's clothes: the difference between the chest circumference and waist circumference.

   Synonyms: breakdown deterioration dip reduction worsening cut decrement deduction drop extract extraction fall lowering shrinkage

2. (sewing) Of women's clothes: the difference between the bust circumference and hip circumference.

   Synonyms: breakdown deterioration dip reduction worsening cut decrement deduction drop extract extraction fall lowering shrinkage

• On one side of the road was a 50-foot drop.
• An Ananda truck coming down a steep, winding mountain road completely lost its brakes and crashed through a thin guard rail over an almost sheer 1000 foot drop. It was caught and held by a solitary tree that was growing...

1. The distance below a cliff or other high position through which someone or something could fall; hence, a steep slope.

2. The vertical length of a hanging curtain.

3. (engineering) The distance of the axis of a shaft below the base of a hanger.

4. (law enforcement) The distance that a person drops when being executed by hanging.

5. (nautical) The depth of a (square) sail (generally applied to the courses only); the vertical dimension of a sail.

   • A further point is, that the convenience of the ship herself may interfere with the disposition of sails. A high forecastle will shorten the drop of the foresail, and a poop may seriously interfere with the spanker. -...
   • Her mainyard was 80 feet long, and her mainsail had a drop of 40 feet. - 1969, Richard Armstrong, The Merchantmen, page 97:
   • Because this natural bulging was not adequate, the sails were deliberately made to round outward by cutting the cloths longer than necessary for the drop of the sail. - 2020, John McKay, Sovereign of the Seas, 1637:

• I left the plans at the drop, like you asked.
• A drop is a place where the stolen property can be stored. It may be a warehouse, an apartment, or a garage. At the drop, a group of persons called loaders remove the merchandise from the truck and store it. - 1973,...

• But musical ancestry aside, the influence to which [Justin] Bieber is most beholden is the current trends in pop music, which means Believe is loaded up with EDM [electronic dance music] accouterments, seeking a...
• Just as dubstep has grown in popularity and combined with many different genres, the drop has become a generalized type of which there are many individually varying instances, including dubstep bass-drop. As LA Times...

• `Well what about first drop then? Garner will be on by then, I'll smash him all over the park.' - 1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 177:

• The kindlye dewe drops from the higher tree, / And wets the little plants that lowly dwell. - 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Nouember. Ægloga Vndecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh...

• A single shot was fired and the bird dropped from the sky.

1. (intransitive, online gaming, video games) Of an item: To appear for the player to pick up, usually after an enemy has been defeated.

   • When you defeat this boss, there's a chance a power-up will drop.
   • This item can sometimes drop from chests.

• Drop and give me thirty push-ups, private!
• If your clothes are on fire, stop, drop, and roll.

• Nothing, ſays Seneca, is ſo melancholy a circumſtance in human life, or ſo ſoon reconciles us to the thought of our own death, as the reflection and prospect of one friend after another dropping round us! - 1722...

• When he again found privacy consistent, however—and it happened to be long in coming—he took up their conversation very much where it had dropped. - 1897 October 16, Henry James, chapter X, in What Maisie Knew, Chicago,...

• The stock dropped 1.5% yesterday.
• We can take our vacation when the price of fuel drops.
• Watch for the temperature to drop sharply, then you’ll know the reaction is complete.

1. (intransitive) Of a song or sound: to lower in key, pitch, tempo, or other quality.

   • My synthesizer makes the notes sound funny when they drop below C2.
   • The song, 180 beats per minute, drops to 150 BPM near the end.

2. (intransitive) Of a voice: to lower in timbre, often due to puberty.

   • Billy’s voice dropped suddenly when he turned 12.
   • The 18-year-old [Justin] Bieber can’t quite pull off the “adult” thing just yet: His voice may have dropped a bit since the days of “Baby,” but it still mostly registers as “angelic,” and veers toward a pubescent whine...

• Do drop by soon and I’ll lend you that book.
• We’ll drop in on her tomorrow.
• He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn...

• The album Hip-Hop Xmas dropped in time for the holidays.

• But more important, if I dropped, Marty would have won the hand automatically. - 1990, Stewart Wolpin, The Rules of Neighborhood Poker According to Hoyle, page 219: