droop
/druːp
/verb [no object]
1Bend or hang downwards limply: a long black cloak drooped from his shoulders...
- It has tall, multi-coloured apartment towers that bend and droop, and people drop extended planks between buildings to visit each other.
- A cigarette drooped limply from the corner of his mouth.
- Above audience and performers alike, an inner ceiling droops downwards in sail-like sleeves that both help disperse sound and secrete necessary technical apparatus.
Synonyms
hang down, hang, dangle, bend, bow, stoop, sag, sink, slump, fall down, drop, flop, wilt, become limp, become flaccid, drape
1.1Sag down from or as if from weariness or dejection: his eyelids drooped and he became drowsy...
- His eyes burned with weariness and his eyelids drooped.
- Slowly my own eyelids began to droop with weariness.
- The phone conversation must have lasted seven or eight minutes tops, and by the time it was finished, Katie's head drooped with weariness.
Synonyms
close, shut, fall
be despondent, lose heart, give up hope, become dispirited, become dejected, despond;
flag, fade, languish, falter, weaken, wilt, go into a decline, waste away
1.2 [with object] Cause to bend or hang downwards: James hid his face in his hands and drooped his head...
- I am reluctant, droop my head, claim to be tired/unwilling/sick of being a show pony.
- The tail is cocked when alighting and the bird droops wings when displaying.
- Neither horse looked tired even though they were both drooping their heads.
noun [in singular]
An act or instance of drooping; a limp or weary attitude: the exhausted droop of her shoulders...
- Signs may include headache, seizures, weakness of the arms and legs, speech problems, a facial droop, and loss of consciousness.
- Aside from the shoulder droop, I feel like I just kind of stumble around.
- In that swift glance, she acknowledged the sleepy glaze in those brilliant green eyes, the slight droop to her shoulders.
Synonyms
drooping, sag, sagging, sinking, slump, slumping;
bend, bow, bowing, stoop, stooping
Origin
Middle English: from Old Norse drúpa 'hang the head'; related to drip and drop.
drip from Old English:
Drip is Old English but the slang use of the word to refer to a ‘feeble or dull person’, dates only from the middle of the 20th century. Drip had a variant drib, source of dribble (mid 16th century). The original sense was ‘shoot an arrow short or wide of its target’, also a sense of drib, which survives in the expression dribs and drabs (early 19th century). A driblet meaning ‘a small drop or stream of liquid’ dates from the late 16th century when it meant a ‘small sum of money’. Drop is related, and so is droop (Middle English).