[drop-out] 
| 1. | an act or instance of dropping out. |
| 2. | a student who withdraws before completing a course of instruction. |
| 3. | a student who withdraws from high school after having reached the legal age to do so. |
| 4. | a person who withdraws from established society, esp. to pursue an alternate lifestyle. |
| 5. | a person who withdraws from a competition, job, task, etc.: the first dropout from the presidential race. |
| 6. | Rugby. a drop kick made by a defending team from within its own 25-yd. (23-m) 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. |
| 7. | 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. |
| 8. | 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. |
| drop·out (drŏp'out') n.
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