Drop n.
 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.
 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.


 Ham·mer n.
 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 form 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. (d) 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 or 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.
 3. Athletics A spherical weight attached to a flexible handle and hurled from a mark or ring. The weight of head and handle is usually not less than 16 pounds.
 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 Zool., 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.


 drop hammer
      n : device for making large forgings [syn: drop forge, {drop
          press]