drip

Formsdrips, dripping, dripped

Pluraldrips

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   Of a liquid, to fall in single drops, one after another.

   Condensation continued to drip from the cold pipe.

   Wax dripped down the side of the candle as it burned.

   Similartrickle, dribble

   Note

   The root of the whole family: Old English drypan, from a Germanic verb meaning "to fall in drops" that was built on the word for a drop. Here the liquid is the subject (water, wax, condensation), and the verb takes no object. When a tap is said to drip, the focus begins to shift from the drops to their source, toward the "leak" meaning.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A single drop of a liquid.

   A drip of honey hung from the spoon before falling.

   He caught a drip of melted ice cream before it hit his shirt.

   Similardrop, droplet, bead

   Note

   The noun was formed from the verb, as Middle English drippe, and close neighbors have the same word: West Frisian drip, Dutch drup, Danish dryp. As a measure it means a tiny amount, such as a drip of vanilla in cocoa. In the plural it names the stray drops that get away, the drips a bucket is put out to catch.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To leak slowly, releasing liquid little by little.

   Old radiators sometimes drip where the joints have rusted.

   The ceiling dripped for hours after the storm.

   Similarleak

   Note

   Here the subject moves from the liquid to its container. The sink, the radiator or the ceiling drips, not the water inside it. "Does the sink drip?" is a question about a fault, so this use belongs to talk of leaks and repairs. When the falling drops themselves are the topic, the "falling drop" meaning is the one at work.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To let a liquid fall in drops onto something.

   The chef dripped melted chocolate across the plate.

   Carefully drip the dye onto the fabric to make spots.

   Similardrizzle, dribble

   Note

   In the transitive use, the object is the liquid that falls: you drip vinegar into oil or ink onto a table. The subject need not be a person. In Joseph C. Lincoln's Mr. Pratt's Patients (1913), a salt mackerel "dripped brine like a rainstorm." The usual pattern is drip, then the liquid, then onto, into or across a surface.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A device that slowly releases a liquid, especially one that delivers drugs into a patient's bloodstream through a vein.

   Doctors started a saline drip to rehydrate the patient.

   Antibiotics were delivered through a drip over several hours.

   SimilarIV, infusion

   Note

   In hospitals the word names the whole setup. The usual idiom is to be on a drip, or to be put on one: "The doctors have put him on a drip." The contents can be named in front, as in a saline drip. Said of a patient, the phrase often tells the listener that someone is unwell enough to need it.

6. 6
   nounslanguncountable

   Style and swagger, especially fashionable or expensive clothing.

   The whole outfit was effortless drip from head to toe.

   Everyone noticed his drip when he walked into the club.

   Similarswag, style

   Note

   Uncountable slang for what someone wears and how they carry it, usually with a possessive: his drip, your drip. That grammar keeps it apart from the insult: "his drip" praises the outfit, while "a drip" mocks the man. It can also mean the clothes themselves, as in Syzygy Magazine's "all this exciting drip" sold at pocket-friendly prices. Its roots lie in the abundance of "dripping with jewels."

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of falling, or letting fall, in drops.

   The constant drip from the ceiling warned them of a leak.

   A slow drip of melting snow marked the start of spring.

   Similartrickle, dribble

   Note

   The process rather than the single drop, and often the sound of it. Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1816) has "the light drip of the suspended oar," the water falling from a raised blade. In this use the word describes something ongoing, like the drip from a ceiling. It pairs easily with words of pace and weight: slow, steady, light, constant.

8. 8
   verbslangintransitive

   To come across as impressive or attractive.

   Her whole look drips, from the boots to the shades.

   Guys who drip don't need to say much.

   Note

   A stative verb of current slang, close kin to the noun for style. Someone who drips simply looks the part, without having to do anything. Kenndog's 2020 track "Drip Like Me" puts the noun and the verb side by side, and another of its lines plays on the liquid meaning underneath.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   To rain lightly, falling as a fine drizzle.

   Gray skies drip over the hills through most of November.

   It dripped softly against the windowpane all evening.

   Similardrizzle

   Note

   Weather talk, built the same way as rain: the subject is an empty it, as in "it's dripping, but you're not going to get so wet." The word plays the weather down, sitting close to drizzle and lighter than real rain. That makes it a word for reassurance rather than warning.

10. 10
    nounderogatorycolloquialcountable or uncountable

    A weak, ineffective, or dull person.

    Everyone thought the new manager was a complete drip.

    She called her blind date a hopeless drip.

    Similarwimp, weed, bore

    Note

    A put-down for someone with no spark or nerve, as in "what a drip!" In Richard Curtis's Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Scarlett uses it for the men who fancy her but leave her cold. It is derogatory but not coarse, and it usually comes with a or an intensifier: a complete drip. Keep it apart from the slang for style, which is a compliment.

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