drop-off

[ drop-awf, -of ]
See synonyms for drop-off on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a vertical or very steep descent: The trail has a drop-off of several hundred feet.

  2. a decline; decrease: Sales have shown a considerable drop-off this year.

  1. a place where a person or thing can be left, received, accommodated, etc.: a new drop-off for outpatients.

adjective
  1. applied when a rented vehicle is left elsewhere than at the point of hire: to pay a drop-off charge.

Origin of drop-off

1
First recorded in 1955–60; noun, adj. use of verb phrase drop off

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use drop-off in a sentence

  • A fine, large fire was started on the ledge of rock that extended out from the "Shelter" to a drop-off of some twenty feet.

  • I crossed a mesa and came to an abrupt drop-off—two hundred feet sheer.

    The Hive | Will Levington Comfort
  • Here we met another problem, in the form of a rounded ten foot drop-off to the concrete table.

    The Image and the Likeness | John Scott Campbell

British Dictionary definitions for drop off

drop off

verb(adverb)
  1. (intr) to grow smaller or less; decline

  2. (tr) to allow to alight; set down

  1. (intr) informal to fall asleep

noundrop-off
  1. a steep or vertical descent

  2. a sharp decrease

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with drop-off

drop-off

Fall asleep, as in When I looked at Grandma, she had dropped off. [Early 1800s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.