Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Drop \Drop\, n. [OE. drope, AS. dropa; akin to OS. dropo, D.
drop, OHG. tropo, G. tropfen, Icel. dropi, Sw. droppe; and
Fr. AS. dre['o]pan to drip, drop; akin to OS. driopan, D.
druipen, OHG. triofan, G. triefen, Icel. drj?pa. Cf. {Drip},
{Droop}.]
1. The quantity of fluid which falls in one small spherical
mass; a liquid globule; a minim; hence, also, the smallest
easily measured portion of a fluid; a small quantity; as,
a drop of water.
With minute drops from off the eaves. --Milton.
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my
sad heart. -- Shak.
That drop of peace divine. --Keble.
2. That which resembles, or that which hangs like, a liquid
drop; as a hanging diamond ornament, an earring, a glass
pendant on a chandelier, a sugarplum (sometimes
medicated), or a kind of shot or slug.
3. (Arch.)
(a) Same as {Gutta}.
(b) Any small pendent ornament.
4. Whatever is arranged to drop, hang, or fall from an
elevated position; also, a contrivance for lowering
something; as:
(a) A door or platform opening downward; a trap door; that
part of the gallows on which a culprit stands when he
is to be hanged; hence, the gallows itself.
(b) A machine for lowering heavy weights, as packages,
coal wagons, etc., to a ship's deck.
(c) A contrivance for temporarily lowering a gas jet.
(d) A curtain which drops or falls in front of the stage
of a theater, etc.
(e) A drop press or drop hammer.
(f) (Mach.) The distance of the axis of a shaft below the
base of a hanger.
5. pl. Any medicine the dose of which is measured by drops;
as, lavender drops.
6. (Naut.) The depth of a square sail; -- generally applied
to the courses only. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.
7. Act of dropping; sudden fall or descent.
{Ague drop}, {Black drop}. See under {Ague}, {Black}.
{Drop by drop}, in small successive quantities; in repeated
portions. ``Made to taste drop by drop more than the
bitterness of death.'' --Burke.
{Drop curtain}. See {Drop}, n., 4.
(d) .
{Drop forging}. (Mech.)
(a) A forging made in dies by a drop hammer.
(b) The process of making drop forgings.
{Drop hammer} (Mech.), a hammer for forging, striking up
metal, etc., the weight being raised by a strap or similar
device, and then released to drop on the metal resting on
an anvil or die.
{Drop kick} (Football), a kick given to the ball as it
rebounds after having been dropped from the hands.
{Drop lake}, a pigment obtained from Brazil wood. --Mollett.
{Drop letter}, a letter to be delivered from the same office
where posted.
{Drop press} (Mech.), a drop hammer; sometimes, a dead-stroke
hammer; -- also called drop.
{Drop scene}, a drop curtain on which a scene is painted. See
{Drop}, n., 4.
(d) .
{Drop seed}. (Bot.) See the List under {Glass}.
{Drop serene}. (Med.) See {Amaurosis}.
Hammer \Ham"mer\, n. [OE. hamer, AS. hamer, hamor; akin to D.
hamer, G. & Dan. hammer, Sw. hammare, Icel. hamarr, hammer,
crag, and perh. to Gr. ? anvil, Skr. a?man stone.]
1. An instrument for driving nails, beating metals, and the
like, consisting of a head, usually of steel or iron,
fixed crosswise to a handle.
With busy hammers closing rivets up. --Shak.
2. Something which in firm or action resembles the common
hammer; as:
(a) That part of a clock which strikes upon the bell to
indicate the hour.
(b) The padded mallet of a piano, which strikes the wires,
to produce the tones.
(c) (Anat.) The malleus. See under {Ear}. (Gun.) That part
of a gunlock which strikes the percussion cap, or
firing pin; the cock; formerly, however, a piece of
steel covering the pan of a flintlock musket and
struck by the flint of the cock to ignite the priming.
(e) Also, a person of thing that smites or shatters; as,
St. Augustine was the hammer of heresies.
He met the stern legionaries [of Rome] who had
been the ``massive iron hammers'' of the whole
earth. --J. H.
Newman.
{Atmospheric hammer}, a dead-stroke hammer in which the
spring is formed by confined air.
{Drop hammer}, {Face hammer}, etc. See under {Drop}, {Face},
etc.
{Hammer fish}. See {Hammerhead}.
{Hammer hardening}, the process of hardening metal by
hammering it when cold.
{Hammer shell} (Zo["o]l.), any species of {Malleus}, a genus
of marine bivalve shells, allied to the pearl oysters,
having the wings narrow and elongated, so as to give them
a hammer-shaped outline; -- called also {hammer oyster}.
{To bring to the hammer}, to put up at auction.
Source : WordNet®
drop hammer
n : device for making large forgings [syn: {drop forge}, {drop
press}]