dropped

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past tense and past participle of drop.

   He dropped the glass, and it shattered on the kitchen floor.

   Prices have dropped sharply since the start of the year.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here. It serves as the simple past (she dropped it) and as the participle after have or be (prices have dropped, the glass was dropped). The final p doubles before -ed. Many of its uses are intransitive, as in water dropped from the eaves or a runner dropped from exhaustion. These take have in the perfect but cannot be turned passive.

2. 2
   adjective

   Let go or released so as to fall to a lower level.

   The dropped pass in the final minute cost the team the game.

   Workers cleared the dropped cargo from the warehouse floor.

3. 3
   adjective

   Suddenly cut off or disconnected, as a call or link that ends without warning.

   The dropped connection forced everyone to rejoin the video meeting.

   Frequent dropped calls made the rural office hard to reach.

   Similardisconnected, lost

   Note

   Telephone language at heart: a dropped call is one that was lost, not one anyone let fall. That keeps it apart from the "let fall" adjective, which describes something released by a hand. The usual pairing is dropped call, now stretched to any broken link. As an adjective it is not graded: a call is dropped or it is not, never more dropped than another.

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