droop

English

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droop

Wikipedia

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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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], Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, London: John Morphew , published 1711, →OCLC, page 284:

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

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 5:

     I’ll animate the Soldier’s drooping Courage,
     With Love of Freedom, and Contempt of Life.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Canto XIV, page 22:

     And I should tell him all my pain,
     ⁠And how my life had droop’d of late,
     ⁠And he should sorrow o’er my state
     And marvel what possess’d my brain; […]

4. (transitive) To allow to droop or sink.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] 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.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, 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, “Part II”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 46:

     […] and now when day
     Droop’d, and the chapel tinkled, mixt with those
     Six hundred maidens clad in purest white […]

Derived terms

• droopage

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):

• slat

Derived terms

• brewer's droop
• droop nose
• droop snoot

Translations

Related terms

• drooped
• drooping
• droopy

References

• “droop”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Podor

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oːp

Verb

droop

1. singular past indicative of druipen