drop

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: OE. drope, AS. dropa; akin to OS. dropo, D. drop, OHG. tropo, G. tropfen, Icel. dropi, Sw. droppe; and Fr. AS. dreópan to drip, drop; akin to OS. driopan, D. druipen, OHG. triofan, G. triefen, Icel. drjūpa. Cf. Drip, Droop.

1. The quantity of fluid which falls in one small spherical mass; a liquid globule; a minim; hence, also, the smallest easily measured portion of a fluid; a small quantity; as, a drop of water.

With minute drops from off the eaves.— John Milton

As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart.— William Shakespeare

That drop of peace divine.— John Keble

2. That which resembles, or that which hangs like, a liquid drop; as a hanging diamond ornament, an earring, a glass pendant on a chandelier, a sugarplum (sometimes medicated), or a kind of shot or slug.

3. Architecture (a) Same as Gutta. (b) Any small pendent ornament.

4. Whatever is arranged to drop, hang, or fall from an elevated position; also, a contrivance for lowering something; as: (a) A door or platform opening downward; a trap door; that part of the gallows on which a culprit stands when he is to be hanged; hence, the gallows itself. (b) A machine for lowering heavy weights, as packages, coal wagons, etc., to a ship's deck. (c) A contrivance for temporarily lowering a gas jet. (d) A curtain which drops or falls in front of the stage of a theater, etc. (e) A drop press or drop hammer. (f) Machinery The distance of the axis of a shaft below the base of a hanger.

5. pl. Any medicine the dose of which is measured by drops; as, lavender drops.

6. Nautical The depth of a square sail; — generally applied to the courses only. Phila. 1881. Hamersly's Naval Encyclopaedia

7. Act of dropping; sudden fall or descent.

Ague drop, Black drop. See under Ague, Black. — Drop by drop, in small successive quantities; in repeated portions. “Made to taste drop by drop more than the bitterness of death.” Edmund Burke — Drop curtain. See Drop, noun, 4. (d). — Drop forging. Mechanics (a) A forging made in dies by a drop hammer. (b) The process of making drop forgings. — Drop hammer Mechanics, a hammer for forging, striking up metal, etc., the weight being raised by a strap or similar device, and then released to drop on the metal resting on an anvil or die. — Drop kick Football, a kick given to the ball as it rebounds after having been dropped from the hands. — Drop lake, a pigment obtained from Brazil wood. John W. Mollett — Drop letter, a letter to be delivered from the same office where posted. — Drop press Mechanics, a drop hammer; sometimes, a dead-stroke hammer; — also called drop. — Drop scene, a drop curtain on which a scene is painted. See Drop, noun, 4. (d). — Drop seed. Botany See the List under Glass. — Drop serene. Medicine See Amaurosis.

Origin: OE. droppen, AS. dropan, v. i. See Drop, noun

1. To pour or let fall in drops; to pour in small globules; to distill. “The trees drop balsam.” Thomas Creech

The recording angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever.— Lawrence Sterne

2. To cause to fall in one portion, or by one motion, like a drop; to let fall; as, to drop a line in fishing; to drop a courtesy.

3. To let go; to dismiss; to set aside; to have done with; to discontinue; to forsake; to give up; to omit.

They suddenly drop't the pursuit.— Samuel Sharp

That astonishing ease with which fine ladies drop you and pick you up again.— William M. Thackeray

The connection had been dropped many years.— Sir Walter Scott

Dropping the too rough H in Hell and Heaven.— Alfred Tennyson

4. To bestow or communicate by a suggestion; to let fall in an indirect, cautious, or gentle manner; as, to drop hint, a word of counsel, etc.

5. To lower, as a curtain, or the muzzle of a gun, etc.

6. To send, as a letter; as, please drop me a line, a letter, word.

7. To give birth to; as, to drop a lamb.

8. To cover with drops; to variegate; to bedrop.

Show to the sun their waved coats dropped with gold.— John Milton

To drop a vessel Nautical, to leave it astern in a race or a chase; to outsail it.

1. To fall in drops.

The kindly dew drops from the higher tree, And wets the little plants that lowly dwell.— Edmund Spenser

2. To fall, in general, literally or figuratively; as, ripe fruit drops from a tree; wise words drop from the lips.

Mutilations of which the meaning has dropped out of memory.— Herbert Spencer

When the sound of dropping nuts is heard.— William Cullen Bryant

3. To let drops fall; to discharge itself in drops.

The heavens... dropped at the presence of God.— Ps. lxviii. 8.

4. To fall dead, or to fall in death; as, dropping like flies.

Nothing, says Seneca, so soon reconciles us to the thoughts of our own death, as the prospect of one friend after another dropping round us.— Digby.

5. To come to an end; to cease; to pass out of mind; as, the affair dropped. Alexander Pope

6. To come unexpectedly; — with in or into; as, my old friend dropped in a moment. Sir Richard Steele

Takes care to drop in when he thinks you are just seated.— The Spectator

7. To fall or be depressed; to lower; as, the point of the spear dropped a little.

8. To fall short of a mark. rare

Often it drops or overshoots by the disproportion of distance.— Jeremy Collier

9. To be deep in extent; to descend perpendicularly; as, her main topsail drops seventeen yards.

To drop astern Nautical, to go astern of another vessel; to be left behind; to slacken the speed of a vessel so as to fall behind and to let another pass a head. — To drop down Nautical, to sail, row, or move down a river, or toward the sea. — To drop off, to fall asleep gently; also, to die. colloquial

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54