drop
pronunciation
How to pronounce drop in British English:
UK [drɒp]
How to pronounce drop in American English:
US [drɑːp]
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- Noun:
- a small quantity (especially of a liquid)
- a shape that is small and round
- a sudden sharp decrease in some quantity
- a steep high face of rock
- a predetermined hiding place for the deposit and distribution of illicit goods (such as drugs or stolen property)
- a free and rapid descent by the force of gravity
- a curtain that can be lowered and raised onto a stage from the flies; often used as background scenery
- a central depository where things can be left or picked up
- the act of dropping something
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- Verb:
- let fall to the ground
- to fall vertically
- go down in value
- fall or drop to a lower place or level
- terminate an association with
- utter casually
- stop pursuing or acting
- leave or unload, especially of passengers or cargo
- cause to fall by or as if by delivering a blow
- lose (a game)
- pay out
- lower the pitch of (musical notes)
- hang freely
- stop associating with
- let or cause to fall in drops
- get rid of
- leave undone or leave out
- change from one level to another
- grow worse
- give birth; used for animals
Word Origin
- drop
- drop: [OE] Drop, droop, and drip are closely related. Droop [13] was borrowed from Old Norse drūpa, which came from a Germanic base *drūp-. A variant of this, *drup-, produced Middle Danish drippe, the probable source of English drip [15], and a further variant, *drop-, lies behind Old English dropa, ancestor of modern English drop.All three go back ultimately to a prehistoric Indo-European *dhreub-, source of Irish drucht ‘dew’. The English noun originally meant ‘globule of liquid’, and its related verb ‘fall in drops’. The main modern transitive sense, ‘allow to fall’, developed in the 14th century, giving English a single word for the concept of ‘letting fall’ not shared by, for example, French and German, which have to use phrases to express it: respectively, laisser tomber and fallen lassen.=> drip, droop
- drop (n.)
- Old English dropa "a drop of liquid," from Proto-Germanic *drupon (cognates: Old Saxon dropo, Old Norse dropi, Dutch drop, Old High German tropfo, German Tropfen (n.)), from PIE *dhreu-. Meaning "an act of dropping" is from 1630s; of immaterial things (prices, temperatures, etc.) from mid-19c. Meaning "lozenge, hard candy" is 1723. Meaning "secret place where things can be left illicitly and picked up later" is from 1931. Drop in the bucket (late 14c.) is from Isa. ix:15 [KJV]. At the drop of a hat "suddenly" is from 1854; drop-in "casual visit" is 1819; drop-kick is 1857. To get the drop on someone originally was Old West gunslinger slang (1869).
- drop (v.)
- Old English dropian "to fall in drops" (see drop (n.)). Meaning "to fall vertically" is late 14c. Transitive sense "allow to fall" is mid-14c. Related: Dropped; dropping. Exclamation drop dead is from 1934; as an adjective meaning "stunning, excellent" it is first recorded 1970.
Example
- 1. Production costs , on aggregate , will drop .
- 2. If there is that much fraud , the value should drop .
- 3. A sustained drop in the u.s. dollar is not a sure bet .
- 4. Back in november , the market was predicting that volatility would drop during the next six months .
- 5. This price drop has hurt margins ?