With minute drops from off the eaves. --Milton.
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my
sad heart. -- Shak.
That drop of peace divine. --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. (Arch.)
(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) (Mach.) 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. (Naut.) The depth of a square sail; -- generally applied
to the courses only. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.
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.'' --Burke.
{Drop curtain}. See {Drop}, n., 4.
(d) .
{Drop forging}. (Mech.)
(a) A forging made in dies by a drop hammer.
(b) The process of making drop forgings.
{Drop hammer} (Mech.), 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. --Mollett.
{Drop letter}, a letter to be delivered from the same office
where posted.
{Drop press} (Mech.), a drop hammer; sometimes, a dead-stroke
hammer; -- also called drop.
{Drop scene}, a drop curtain on which a scene is painted. See
{Drop}, n., 4.
(d) .
{Drop seed}. (Bot.) See the List under {Glass}.
{Drop serene}. (Med.) See {Amaurosis}.
The kindly dew drops from the higher tree, And wets
the little plants that lowly dwell. --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. --H. Spencer.
When the sound of dropping nuts is heard. --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.
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. --Pope.
6. To come unexpectedly; -- with in or into; as, my old
friend dropped in a moment. --Steele.
Takes care to drop in when he thinks you are just
seated. --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. [R.]
Often it drops or overshoots by the disproportion of
distance. --Collier.
9. To be deep in extent; to descend perpendicularly; as, her
main topsail drops seventeen yards.
{To drop astern} (Naut.), 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} (Naut.), to sail, row, or move down a river,
or toward the sea.
{To drop off}, to fall asleep gently; also, to die. [Colloq.]
The recording angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a
tear upon the word and blotted it out forever.
--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. --S. Sharp.
That astonishing ease with which fine ladies drop
you and pick you up again. --Thackeray.
The connection had been dropped many years. -- Sir
W. Scott.
Dropping the too rough H in Hell and Heaven.
--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.
--Milton.
{To drop a vessel} (Naut.), to leave it astern in a race or a
chase; to outsail it.
2. (Arch.) One of a series of ornaments, in the form of a
frustum of a cone, attached to the lower part of the
triglyphs, and also to the lower faces of the mutules, in
the Doric order; -- called also {campana}, and {drop}.
{Gutta serena} [L., lit. serene or clear drop] (Med.),
amaurosis.
{Gutt[ae] band}> (Arch.), the listel or band from which the
gutt[ae] hang.