dripping

Pluraldrippings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of drip.

   Rain was dripping steadily from the edge of the roof.

   She left the faucet dripping into the sink overnight.

   Note

   The -ing form doubles the final p, as short verbs ending in a single vowel and consonant do. It carries the verb's whole range: water dripping from a roof, a tap dripping slowly, someone dripping paint, and the figurative sense of having too much of something, as in a manner dripping with charm. Placed before a noun, it shades into the adjective for "very wet".

2. 2
   adjective

   Soaked so thoroughly that liquid runs off; extremely wet.

   The swimmers left dripping footprints across the tile.

   She hung her dripping raincoat on the hook by the door.

   Similarsoaked, drenched, sodden, soaking, wet

   Oppositedry

   Note

   Here the participle has settled into a true adjective, and it compares with more and most rather than with endings: more dripping, most dripping. It sits comfortably before a noun, where it can color a whole landscape. F. M. Bailey's Mission to Tashkent (1946) describes a dripping bamboo forest hung with fern and orchid. It also works after a verb, as in "the coat was dripping."

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The repeated sound or action of liquid falling in small drops.

   The dripping of rainwater echoed through the empty cave.

   A faint dripping told them the roof had begun to leak.

   Similartrickle

4. 4
   noununcountable

   Solid animal fat, traditionally collected as it drips from roasting meat.

   The cook saved the dripping from the Sunday roast in a jar.

   Bread and dripping was a cheap, filling meal for many families.

   Note

   A kitchen word named for its own making: the fat is called after the act of dripping off the joint as it roasts. It is mostly a mass noun (a jar of dripping, bread and dripping), though the plural drippings also exists. In W.S. Maugham's Of Human Bondage (1915), a slice of bread and dripping is the plain fare offered at dawn to a guest who was "not squeamish", a hint of the dish's humble standing.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The practice of placing e-liquid directly onto an e-cigarette's atomizer with a drip tip, rather than feeding it through a wick.

   Dripping gives enthusiasts finer control over flavor than a standard tank.

   She tried dripping for the first time at the vape shop.

   Note

   The technique has a practical hazard: adding too much liquid at once can flood the atomizer. For that reason, Mike Sands's Make Your Own E-Liquid (2010) advises dripping only as much as you plan to vape at that moment. The word names the practice as a noun, but it also reads naturally as an activity in progress, as in "when dripping," much like smoking or brewing.

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