Inherited from Middle English droupen, from Old Norse drúpa (“to droop”), from Proto-Germanic *drūpaną, *drupōną (“to hang down, drip, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to drip, drop”). Doublet of drip and drop.
Meanings
(archaic) Drooping; adroop.
But when the melancholy fit shall fall / Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud, / That fosters the droop-headed flowers all. / And hides the green hill in an April shroud : c. 1880s, C. M. Kirtland, “Ode on Melancholy”, in Poetry of the Flowers, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., page 505:
Inherited from Middle English droupen, from Old Norse drúpa (“to droop”), from Proto-Germanic *drūpaną, *drupōną (“to hang down, drip, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to drip, drop”). Doublet of drip and drop.
Meanings
Something which is limp or sagging.
A condition or posture of drooping.
He walked with a discouraged droop.
A hinged portion of the leading edge of an aeroplane's wing, which swivels downward to increase lift during takeoff and landing.
cs zplihlost (a condition or posture of drooping) · fr bec (aviation: a hinged portion of the leading edge) · cs skleslost (a condition or posture of drooping) · ru уныние (a condition or posture of drooping) · cs pokleslost (a condition or posture of drooping) · bg униние (a condition or posture of drooping)
Inherited from Middle English droupen, from Old Norse drúpa (“to droop”), from Proto-Germanic *drūpaną, *drupōną (“to hang down, drip, drop”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewb- (“to drip, drop”). Doublet of drip and drop.
Meanings
(intransitive) To hang downward; to sag.
On the brown harvest tree / Droops the red cherry. 1866, John Keegan Casey, “Maire My Girl”, in A Wreath of Shamrocks, Dublin: Robert S. McGee, page 20:
a. 1992, quote attributed to Sylvester Stallone
I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.
Long before Shap platform showed up around a corner and the two arms on the gradient post drooped in both directions at once, Duchess of Buccleuch's amiable throbbing purr at the stack [funnel, chimney] had become a fierce freight-engine bark, as she resolutely dragged at her enormous load. 1949 January and February, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–1”, in Railway Magazine, page 12:
(intransitive) To slowly become limp; to bend gradually.
She was trying to hang in, but her chin was drooping onto her chest. 2012, Howie Carr, Hard Knocks:
Others who conscientiously attended the Technical College at night often drooped over their desks in a doze, and one does not wonder at it. 1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 285:
Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth[…]. 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
His head had drooped with his hair across his face. 2010, john g rees, Halocline:
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; / While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse. c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
The Grapes that on it hung were black, and all / The Vines supported and from drooping staid / With silver Props, that down they could not fall […] 1676, Thomas Hobbes, transl., Homer’s Iliads in English, London: William Crook, Book 18, p. 289:
(intransitive) To lose all energy, enthusiasm or happiness; to flag.
But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad? c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
Amidst the peaceful Triumphs of his Reign, / What wonder if the kindly beams he shed / Reviv’d the drooping Arts again […] 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis, London: Jacob Tonson, XII, p. 17:
And I should tell him all my pain, / And how my life had droop’d of late, / And he should sorrow o’er my state / And marvel what possess’d my brain; […] 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 22:
I’ll animate the Soldier’s drooping Courage, / With Love of Freedom, and Contempt of Life. 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 5:
I saw him accidentally once or twice about 10 Days before he died, and observed he began very much to Droop and Languish […] 1711 (date written), [Jonathan Swift], Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, volume I, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1711, →OCLC, page 284:
(transitive) To allow to droop or sink.
1892, Arthur Christopher Benson, “Knapweed” in Le Cahier Jaune: Poems, Eton: privately printed, p. 62,
Down in the mire he droops his head;
Forgotten, not forgiven.
[…] pithless arms, like to a wither’d vine / That droops his sapless branches to the ground; 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:
(figuratively, intransitive) To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline.
[…] and now when day / Droop’d, and the chapel tinkled, mixt with those / Six hundred maidens clad in purest white […] 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part II”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 46:
[…] let us forth, / I never from thy side henceforth to stray, / Wherere our days work lies, though now enjoind / Laborious, till day droop […] 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 175-178:
Share prices are drooping. 2025 December 27, “Cocktails in a can are the new frontier for drooping drinks giants”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18:
bg клюмвам (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · de abschlaffen (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · de welken (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · ru свиса́ть (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · bg унивам (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · mi konewha (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · ru па́дать духом (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · bg свеждам (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · fi roikkua (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · ru унывать (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · bg клюмвам (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · de herunterhängen (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · cs zplihnout (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · cs svěšovat se (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · de erschlaffen (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · cmn 低垂 (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · it pendere (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · de herabhängen (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · de nachgeben (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · eo velki (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · mi raupeka (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · fi nuupahtaa (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · de ermatten (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · de heruntersinken (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · fi nuukahtaa (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · cs sklánět se (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · mi whakatauweweru (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · cs sklesnout (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · fr tomber (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · fi kuihtua (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · cmn 下垂 (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · de herabsinken (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · enm droupen (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · mk на́ведне (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · cs ohýbat se (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · ota بایلمق (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · cs klesat na duchu (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · mi kōnewhanewha (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · ru склоняться (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · fi väsähtää (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · enm droupen (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · de durchhängen (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · fr s'affaisser (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · sv sloka (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · mi parohea (to lose all enthusiasm or happiness) · mk ви́си (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · mi tāngange (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · ru поникнуть (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · bg отслабвам (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually) · mi hō (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · mi pītawitawi (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · mi tatao (to sink or hang downward; to sag) · de schwinden (to slowly become limp; to bend gradually)