droop

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”).

• enPR: drūp, IPA^(key): /ˈdɹuːp/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -uːp
• Homophone: drupe

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, p. 20,

     On the brown harvest tree

     Droops the red cherry.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Sylvester Stallone (1946-)

     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. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act III, Scene 2,

     Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

     While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

   • 1676, Thomas Hobbes (translator), 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, Robert William Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     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 […].

   • 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.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, Scene 1,

     But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?

   • 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, London: Jacob Tonson, XII, p. 17,

     Amidst the peaceful Triumphs of his Reign,

     What wonder if the kindly beams he shed

     Reviv’d the drooping Arts again […]

   • 1711, Jonathan Swift, “The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff’s Predictions” in Miscellanies, London: John Morphew, p. 284,

     I saw him accidentally once or twice about 10 Days before he died, and observed he began very much to Droop and Languish […]

   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy, London: J. Tonson, Act I, Scene 2, p. 5,

     I’ll animate the Soldier’s drooping Courage,

     With Love of Freedom, and Contempt of Life.

4. (transitive) To allow to droop or sink.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act II, Scene 5,

     […] pithless arms, like to a wither’d vine

     That droops his sapless branches to the ground;

   • 1892, Arthur Christopher Benson, “Knapweed” in Le Cahier Jaune: Poems, Eton: privately printed, p. 62,

     Down in the mire he droops his head;

     Forgotten, not forgiven.

5. To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 11, lines 175-178,

     […] let us forth,

     I never from thy side henceforth to stray,

     Wherere our days work lies, though now enjoind

     Laborious, till day droop […]

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “The Princess” in The Princess; a Medley, London: Edward Moxon, p. 46,

     […] and now when day

     Droop’d, and the chapel tinkled, mixt with those

     Six hundred maidens clad in purest white […]

• droopage

droop (plural droops)

1. something which is limp or sagging
2. a condition or posture of drooping

   He walked with a discouraged droop.

• brewer's droop

• drooped
• drooping
• droopy

• droop at OneLook Dictionary Search

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  (file)

• Rhymes: -oːp

droop

1. singular past indicative of druipen