Drop

Drop, drop, n. a small particle of liquid which falls at one time: a very small quantity of liquid: anything hanging like a drop: a fall: a trap in the gallows scaffold, the fall of which allows the criminal to drop: a device for lowering goods into a ship's hold.—v.i. to fall in small particles: to let drops fall: to fall suddenly: to come to an end: to fall or sink lower.—v.t. to let fall in drops: to let fall: to let go, dismiss, break off, as an acquaintance: to utter casually: to write and send (a note) in an off-hand manner: to set down from a carriage:—pr.p. drop′ping; pa.p. dropped.—ns. Drop′-drill, an apparatus for dropping seed and manure into the soil simultaneously; Drop′-hamm′er, Drop′-press, a swaging, stamping, or forging machine having either a regular or intermittent motion; Drop′let, a little drop; Drop′-lett′er (U.S.), a letter posted in any place merely for local delivery; Drop′-net, a net suspended from a boom, to be suddenly dropped on a passing shoal of fish; Drop′ping, that which is dropped: (pl.) dung, esp. of fowls.—adj. Drop′-ripe, so ripe as to be ready to drop from the tree.—ns. Drop′-Scene, a painted curtain suspended by pulleys, which drops in front of the stage in a theatre; Drop′-stone, a stalactic variety of calcite.—adv. Drop′-wise (Tenn.), by drops.—n. Drop′-wort, the Spiræa Filipendula.—Drop astern (naut.), to pass or move towards the stern; Drop away, off, to depart, disappear; Drop down, to sail, move, or row down a coast, or down a river to the sea; Drop in, to come in casually; Drop out, to disappear from one's place; Drop serene, an old medical name for amaurosis, literally translated from L. gutta serena.—A dropping fire, a continuous irregular discharge of small-arms.—Prince Rupert's drops, drops of glass which have fallen in a melted state into cold water, and have assumed a tadpole-like shape, the whole falling to dust with a loud report if the point of the tail be nipped off. [A.S. dropa, a drop—dreópan, to drop; Dut. drop, Ger. tropfe.]