drops

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of drop.

   Heavy drops splattered against the pavement as the storm began.

   The recipe calls for several drops of vanilla extract.

   Note

   Most plurals of drop are simply counts: several drops of rain, of vanilla, of anything. One meaning, though, lives mainly in the plural. As the name of a liquid medicine given a drop at a time, drops refers to the medicine itself rather than to a number of droplets. Contrast the British the drop, meaning alcoholic spirits in general, which keeps the singular.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of drop.

   He drops the children at school before driving to the office.

   The stock price drops every time the company misses its targets.

   Note

   The present-tense form for a singular subject: it drops, the price drops, she drops the kids off. It shares its spelling with the plural noun, so only the sentence shows which is meant. Most uses are intransitive, with nothing being dropped. In gamers' usage the item itself is the subject: a rare sword drops when the enemy is defeated, and no one is said to have dropped it.

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