Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To fall in drops.
  • intransitive verb To shed drops.
  • intransitive verb To ooze or be saturated with or as if with liquid.
  • intransitive verb To let fall in or as if in drops.
  • noun The process of forming and falling in drops.
  • noun Liquid or moisture that falls in drops.
  • noun A slight intermittent flow or leak.
  • noun The sound made by liquid falling in drops.
  • noun A projection on a cornice or sill from which rainwater can drip, protecting the wall below.
  • noun Slang A tiresome or annoying person.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To fall in drops.
  • To shed or let fall a liquid in drops, as a wet garment or a roof.
  • To let fall in drops.
  • noun A drop. See drop, n.
  • noun A falling or letting fall in drops; a dripping.
  • noun That which falls in drops; specifically, dripping, or melted fat which drips from meat while roasting.
  • noun In architecture, a projecting member of a cornice, etc., so cut as to throw off water, which would without it trickle down upon the parts beneath. See dripstone.
  • noun A receptacle for waste or overflow: as, the drip of a water-cooler or a refrigerator.
  • noun In meteorology, the drops of water which fall from leaves and other objects which are enveloped by clouds or fog, or covered with dew.
  • noun An inclined wooden platform, used in the manufacture of salt, for draining the salt before it is conveyed to the storehouse.
  • noun A deposit formed from dripping water, as stalactites in caves.
  • noun In horticulture, the water that drips from the sash-bars and other roof-structure of a glass-house.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To fall in drops.
  • intransitive verb To let fall drops of moisture or liquid.
  • noun A falling or letting fall in drops; a dripping; that which drips, or falls in drops.
  • noun (Arch.) That part of a cornice, sill course, or other horizontal member, which projects beyond the rest, and is of such section as to throw off the rain water.
  • noun (Law) an easement or servitude by which a man has the right to have the water flowing from his house fall on the land of his neighbor.
  • transitive verb To let fall in drops.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To fall one drop at a time.
  • verb intransitive To leak slowly.
  • verb transitive To put a small amount of a liquid on something, drop by drop.
  • verb To have a superabundance of valuable things.
  • verb intransitive, of the weather to rain lightly.
  • verb intransitive to be wet, to be soaked.
  • noun A drop of a liquid.
  • noun medicine An apparatus that slowly releases a liquid, especially one that releases drugs into a patient's bloodstream (an intravenous drip).
  • noun colloquial A limp, ineffectual, boring or otherwise uninteresting person.
  • initialism finance Dividend reinvestment program; a type of financial investing

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb fall in drops
  • verb let or cause to fall in drops
  • noun (architecture) a projection from a cornice or sill designed to protect the area below from rainwater (as over a window or doorway)
  • noun flowing in drops; the formation and falling of drops of liquid
  • noun the sound of a liquid falling drop by drop

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English drippen; see dhreu- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • A continuous infusion of some medicine into someone's vein. Drip medicines give a constant dose but require lots of nursing attention because it's always on, and because many of them have rates that have to be dialed up or down based on some parameters.

    To be put on a drip means to begin a continuous infusion.

    January 26, 2008

  • See also dribble.

    May 6, 2021