drips

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of drip.

   The old roof drips steadily whenever heavy rain falls.

   Her brush drips paint across the canvas with each stroke.

   Note

   Here the form works in both directions. It is intransitive when the subject itself loses drops (the tap drips) and transitive when the subject lets something fall (her brush drips paint). It also stretches to weather, where an impersonal it drips comes close to drizzles. It can describe excess too, for a subject that has far more of something than it needs.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of drip.

   Slow drips of condensation formed a small pool beneath the pipe.

   Several drips of wax hardened along the side of the candle.

   Note

   Only the countable uses of drip take a plural. These are drops of liquid, intravenous apparatuses, the projecting part of a cornice or sill shaped to throw off rainwater, and, as a colloquial insult, limp or ineffectual people. The slang sense of style or swagger is uncountable, so a plural never names outfits. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb.

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