droop (drop)

[ Wel cowde he dre e his takel yemanly; His arwes drowpede nought with fetheres lowe. Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. Т., 1. 107. The evening comes, and every little flower Droops now, as well as I. Beau. and Fl . , Coxcomb, iii. 3. Hampden, with his head drooping , and his hands leaning on his horse's neck, moved feebly out of the battle. Macaulay , Nugent's Hampden. Near the lake where drooped the willow, Long time ago. G. P. Morris. IMG:content-0011.png:[blocks in formation] After this King Leir, more and more drooping with Years, became an easy prey to his Daughters and thir Husbands, Milton , Hist. Eng., i. We had not been at Sea long before our Men began to droop, in a sort of a Distemper that stole insensibly on them. Dampier, Voyages, I. 524. One day she drooped , and the next she died; nor was there the distance of many hours between her being very easy in this world, and very happy in another. Bp . Atterbury , Sermons, I. vi. 3. To fail or sink; flag; decline; be dispirited: as, the courage droops ; the spirits droop . Myche fere had that fre, & full was of thoght, All droupond in drede and in dol lengyt. Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 6303. But wherefore do you droop ? why look so sad? Be great in act, as you have been in thought. Shak., K. John, v. 1. Why droops my lord, my love, my life, my Cæsar? How ill this dulne doth comport with greatne ! Fletcher (and another ?), Prophete , v. 1. 4. To tend gradually downward or toward a close. [Poetical.] Then day droopt ; the chapel bells Call'd us: we left the walks. Tennyson, Prince , ii. 5. To drip; be wet with water. [Prov. Eng.] I was drooping wet to my very skinne. Coryat , Crudities, I. 57. "They've had no rain at all down here," said he. "Then," said she, demurely regarding her drooping skirts, "they'll think I must have fallen into the river.' W. Black , Harper's Mag., LXXVI. 391. II. trans. To let sink or hang down: as, to droop the head. The lilylike Meli a droop'd her brows. Tennyson, Prince , iv. Great, sulky gray cranes droop their motionle heads over the still, salt pools along the shore. R. T. Cooke , Somebody's Neighbors, p. 24.