dropout

or drop-out

[ drop-out ]

/ ˈdrɒpˌaʊt /

SEE MORE 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.

Nearby words

drophead coupé, droplet, droplet infection, droplight, dropline, dropout, droppage, dropped egg, dropped seat, dropped sole, dropped waist

Origin of dropout

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for dropout

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 and (dropout) Michele Bachmann added up to about 14 percent in these polls.
Michael Tomasky: South Carolina Showdown for Romney and Santorum|Michael Tomasky|January 4, 2012|DAILY BEAST
By replacing each team with a famous alumnus (or dropout), filling out a bracket has never been easier.
March Madness: Which Celebrity Alumni Will Win?|Michael Solomon|March 17, 2011|DAILY BEAST
It sounds drastic,” says Powell, “but literally the future of our nation is at stake if we do not correct the dropout rate.
America's Dropout Crisis|The Daily Beast|October 28, 2009|DAILY BEAST

But the political class and education experts are hardly united on how to address the dropout crisis.
America's Dropout Crisis|The Daily Beast|October 28, 2009|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

dropout

or drop-out

noun

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of dropout

Examples from the Web for dropout

British Dictionary definitions for dropout

dropout

noun

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