Part 549

Dron"y (?), a. Like a drone; sluggish; lazy.

Drool (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Drooled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Drooling.] [Contr. fr. drivel.] To drivel, or drop saliva; as, the child drools.

His mouth drooling with texts.

T. Parker.

Droop (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Drooped (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Drooping.] [Icel. dr&?;pa; akin to E. drop. See Drop.] 1. To hang bending downward; to sink or hang down, as an animal, plant, etc., from physical inability or exhaustion, want of nourishment, or the like. "The purple flowers droop." "Above her drooped a lamp." Tennyson.

I saw him ten days before he died, and observed he began very much to droop and languish.

Swift.

2. To grow weak or faint with disappointment, grief, or like causes; to be dispirited or depressed; to languish; as, her spirits drooped.

I'll animate the soldier's drooping courage.

Addison.

3. To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline. "Then day drooped." Tennyson.

Droop, v. t. To let droop or sink. [R.] M. Arnold.

Like to a withered vine That droops his sapless branches to the ground.

Shak.

Droop, n. A drooping; as, a droop of the eye.

Droop"er (?), n. One who, or that which, droops.

Droop"ing*ly, adv. In a drooping manner.

Drop (?), n. [OE. drope, AS. dropa; akin to OS. dropo, D. drop, OHG. tropo, G. tropfen, Icel. dropi, Sw. droppe; and Fr. AS. dreópan to drip, drop; akin to OS. driopan, D. druipen, OHG. triofan, G. triefen, Icel. drj&?;pa. Cf. Drip, Droop.] 1. The quantity of fluid which falls in one small spherical mass; a liquid globule; a minim; hence, also, the smallest easily measured portion of a fluid; a small quantity; as, a drop of water.

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.