dropout

or drop-out

[ drop-out ]
See synonyms for dropout on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an act or instance of dropping out.

  2. a student who withdraws before completing a course of instruction.

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

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

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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

Origin of dropout

1
1925–30, Americanism; noun use of verb phrase drop out

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

How to use dropout in a sentence

  • There is no special accumulation of drop-outs for either the earlier or the later ages.

    The High School Failures | Francis P. Obrien
  • It follows, then, that the older ages have the higher percentages of drop-outs when this basis of the computation is employed.

    The High School Failures | Francis P. Obrien
  • Table VI furnishes the corresponding facts for the non-failing drop-outs.

    The High School Failures | Francis P. Obrien
  • The number of drop-outs does not tend to increase as the number of failures per pupil increases.

    The High School Failures | Francis P. Obrien
  • For the failing drop-outs both the median and the mode are at the age of 17.

    The High School Failures | Francis P. Obrien

British Dictionary definitions for dropout

dropout

/ (ˈdrɒpˌaʊt) /


noun
  1. a student who fails to complete a school or college course

  2. a person who rejects conventional society

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

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

verbdrop out (intr, adverb often foll by of)
  1. 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

dropout

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]

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