droop

English

Etymology

From Middle English droupen, from Old Norse drúpa (“to droop”), from Proto-Germanic *drūpaną, *drupōną (“to hang down, drip, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to drip, drop”). Doublet of drip and drop.

Pronunciation
  • enPR: drūp, IPA(key): /ˈdɹuːp/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːp
  • Homophone: drupe

Verb

droop (third-person singular simple present droops, present participle drooping, simple past and past participle drooped)

  1. (intransitive) To hang downward; to sag.
    • 1866, John Keegan Casey, “Maire My Girl”, in A Wreath of Shamrocks‎, Dublin: Robert S. McGee, page 20:
      On the brown harvest tree
      Droops the red cherry.
    • 1949 January and February, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–1”, in Railway Magazine, page 12:
      Long before Shap platform showed up around a corner and the two arms on the gradient post drooped in both directions at once, Duchess of Buccleuch's amiable throbbing purr at the stack [funnel, chimney] had become a fierce freight-engine bark, as she resolutely dragged at her enormous load.
    • a. 1992, quote attributed to Sylvester Stallone
      I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.
  2. (intransitive) To slowly become limp; to bend gradually.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
      Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;
      While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.
    • 1676, Thomas Hobbes, transl., Homer’s Iliads in English‎, London: William Crook, Book 18, p. 289:
      The Grapes that on it hung were black, and all
      The Vines supported and from drooping staid
      With silver Props, that down they could not fall […]
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth […].
    • 1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 285:
      Others who conscientiously attended the Technical College at night often drooped over their desks in a doze, and one does not wonder at it.
    • 2010, john g rees, Halocline‎:
      His head had drooped with his hair across his face.
    • 2012, Howie Carr, Hard Knocks‎:
      She was trying to hang in, but her chin was drooping onto her chest.
  3. (intransitive) To lose all energy, enthusiasm or happiness; to flag.
  4. (transitive) To allow to droop or sink.
  5. To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline.

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

droop (plural droops)

  1. Something which is limp or sagging.
  2. A condition or posture of drooping.
    He walked with a discouraged droop.
  3. (aviation) A hinged portion of the leading edge of an aeroplane's wing, which swivels downward to increase lift during takeoff and landing.

Coordinate terms

(part of aeroplane wing):

Derived terms

Translations

References
  • “droop”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -oːp

Verb

droop

  1. singular past indicative of druipen
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