plop
Americanverb (used without object)
-
plops,
present (3rd person singular)
-
plopped,
past participle, past
-
plopping
present participle
-
to make a sound like that of something falling or dropping into water.
A frog plopped into the pond.
-
to fall with such a sound.
Big raindrops plopped against the window.
-
to drop or fall with full force or direct impact.
He plopped into a chair.
verb (used with object)
-
plops,
present (3rd person singular)
-
plopped,
past participle, past
-
plopping
present participle
-
to drop or set down heavily.
She plopped her books on the desk.
-
to cause to plop.
The fisherman plopped the bait into the river.
noun
-
plops
plural
-
a plopping sound or fall.
-
the act of plopping.
adverb
noun
verb
interjection
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
plopsimple
-
plopssimple
-
have ploppedperfect
-
has ploppedperfect
-
am ploppingprogressive
-
are ploppingprogressive
-
is ploppingprogressive
-
have been ploppingperfect progressive
-
has been ploppingperfect progressive
Past
-
ploppedsimple
-
had ploppedperfect
-
was ploppingprogressive
-
were ploppingprogressive
-
had been ploppingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of plop
First recorded in 1815–25; imitative
Explanation
To plop is to drop something (or yourself) with a short sound. The sound itself is also a plop — like something landing in water without much of a splash. The sound of a plop is abrupt and hollow — you could also call it a plunk or a or a plonk. You might plop an ice cube in your glass of water, or watch a flock of bird plop themselves on the surface of a pond. Plop is imitative or onomatopoeic (it sounds like its meaning), and it first appeared in the 1820s after the brief popularity of the alternative word plap.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Chandor isn’t sure what she’d do if Chonkers tried to plop down somewhere else.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
Perhaps the loudest: lobbyists and salespeople who have used open seating to zero in on a prospective client or lawmaker and plop down next to them for an in-flight pitch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
In order to sit next to a stranger, I’d have to eschew vast stretches of empty stools and plop down right beside them like a creep, hitting on unsuspecting old people.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2025
You plop down 65,000 seats one time and you lose a lot of that sort of quirkiness.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2025
I plop, sit beside him on the log, watching the dying fire.
From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
F1 picks up the paddock—the behind-the-scenes village of garages and other infrastructure—and plops it in Singapore without changing the clocks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
If, say, a housing development plops down where you live, you are forced to wander.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
Enthralled, Elio plops a colander on his head and pleads for aliens to touch down and “take me with you — but not in a desperate way.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
He works in a nondescript cubicle in a huge office, and barely gets through one tray of electronic files before a droid plops another on his desk.
From New York Times ● Mar. 15, 2023
So Suesetta does her own thing and Phyllis plops down on the sofa.
From "Betty Before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
Phil Trubey, who plopped down $250,000 for a “Founders Series” Roadster, isn’t concerned about how fast it will be.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Long gone are the days when fortune seekers plopped drilling rigs behind the State Capitol.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
Her son Victor, 11, plopped onto the sidewalk to read his Imagination Library edition of "Llama Llama Red Pajama," a family favorite.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
In the morning, as we ate vegan doughnuts and watched cat cartoons, kitten Asher plopped onto my lap and purred loudly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Soon, Babulya’s snores wound up from her bed, and Anya plopped onto her own as the snores got louder.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
You can pace around the living room when you’re watching TV instead of plopping down on the couch.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
Instead of plopping us into an eternity in media res, Freyne introduces something novel to this process: a choice.
From Salon ● Nov. 27, 2025
For solo travelers or couples, that means plopping down next to strangers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
Like many of us, I have struggled with anxiety or depression, and am prone to plopping in bed when feeling overwhelmed or unable to focus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2024
All kinds of girls zipped around like honeybees, some plopping into cozy armchairs, others perched on the spiraled staircases, and a few clustered around the worktables.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
