dropout

or drop-out

[ drop-out ]

/ ˈdrɒpˌaʊt /

Save This Word!

See synonyms for dropout on Thesaurus.com

noun

an act or instance of dropping out.

a student who withdraws before completing a course of instruction.

a student who withdraws from high school after having reached the legal age to do so.

a person who withdraws from established society, especially to pursue an alternate lifestyle.

a person who withdraws from a competition, job, task, etc.: the first dropout from the presidential race.

Rugby. a drop kick made by a defending team from within its own 25-yard (23-meter) line as a result of a touchdown or of the ball's having touched or gone outside of a touch-in-goal line or the dead-ball line.

Also called highlight halftone. a halftone negative or plate in which dots have been eliminated from highlights by continued etching, burning in, opaquing, or the like.

Also called dropout error. the loss of portions of the information on a recorded magnetic tape due to contamination of the magnetic medium or poor contact with the tape heads.

QUIZ

ARE YOU A TRUE BLUE CHAMPION OF THESE "BLUE" SYNONYMS?

We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

Question 1 of 8

Which of the following words describes “sky blue”?

navy

beryl

azure

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Meet Grammar Coach

Write or paste your essay, email, or story into Grammar Coach and get grammar help

Improve Your Writing

Meet Grammar CoachImprove Your Writing

Origin of dropout

1925–30, Americanism; noun use of verb phrase drop out

Words nearby dropout

drop like flies, dropline, drop lock, drop names, drop-off, dropout, droppage, drop pass, dropped egg, dropped seat, dropped sole

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

How to use dropout in a sentence

The past year could result in a higher-than-usual dropout rate when districts open up full-time, in-person schooling.
Growing up on screens: How a year lived online has changed our children|Heather Kelly|March 5, 2021|Washington Post
The self-taught college dropout used open-source information – such as data from social media, Google Maps, Google Earth – and help from a fellow community of fact-finding enthusiasts.
Bellingcat Has Revealed War Crimes in Syria and Unmasked Russian Assassins. Founder Eliot Higgins Says They're Just Getting Started|Madeline Roache|March 2, 2021|Time
In his sixth novel, Lee records the adventures of this college dropout in a wild tale that moves coolly between satire and thriller.
Chang-rae Lee’s ‘My Year Abroad,’ is a sweeping, twisty tale of love, family and hope|Frances Cha|February 18, 2021|Washington Post
Other variants that are not of concern also have that missing gene, and so it is not possible, without a full genomic sequence, to know if a dropout is actually a signal of the British variant.
CDC foresees spread in U.S. of highly contagious coronavirus variant|Joel Achenbach, Ben Guarino|January 6, 2021|Washington Post

The shift to remote learning is resulting in “enormous dropouts and substantial learning losses” that will reduce the earning potential of a generation of students, the World Bank said in a recent report on South Asia.
Schools in India have been closed since March. The costs to children are mounting.|Parth M.N., Joanna Slater, Niha Masih|December 30, 2020|Washington Post
He calls Kline the champion of for-profit colleges, which have a dropout rate “worse than celebrity rehab.”
Bill Maher Wants You to Meet—and Beat—Republican John Kline|Eleanor Clift|September 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He plays Wallace, a twentysomething medical school dropout who falls for Chantry (Zoe Kazan), a capricious animator/artist.
Daniel Radcliffe on Sex, ‘Harry Potter,’ and Complicated Relationships|Marlow Stern|July 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The engineering school dropout had sold corned beef to Africa and brokered some Brazilian diamonds with mixed success.
The Rise And Fall Of Brazilian Billionaire Eike Batista|Mac Margolis|November 9, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Steve Jobs is possibly the most famous college dropout and touted as our modern Thomas Edison.
Nine Craziest Moments From ‘Jobs’|Anna Klassen|August 16, 2013|DAILY BEAST
On Wednesday's Late Show With David Letterman, Tom Brokaw dismissed Snowden as "a high school dropout who is a military washout."
The Sickening Snowden Backlash|Kirsten Powers|June 14, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The economy absorbed the majority of the dropout population.
The Civilization of Illiteracy|Mihai Nadin

British Dictionary definitions for dropout

dropout

/ (ˈdrɒpˌaʊt) /

noun

a student who fails to complete a school or college course

a person who rejects conventional society

drop-out rugby a drop kick taken by the defending team to restart play, as after a touchdown

drop-out electronics a momentary loss of signal in a magnetic recording medium as a result of an imperfection in its magnetic coating

verb drop out (intr, adverb often foll by of)

to abandon or withdraw from (a school, social group, job, etc)

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 dropout

drop out

Withdraw from participation in a group such as a school, club, or game; also, withdraw from society owing to disillusionment. For example, He couldn't afford the membership dues and had to drop out, or She planned to drop out from college for a year. [Late 1800s]

dropout

or drop-out

Origin of dropout

Words nearby dropout

Words related to dropout

How to use dropout in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for dropout

Other Idioms and Phrases with dropout