drooping
/ˈdɹuːpɪŋ/
drooping is the present participle and gerund of droop.
Meaning of droop
Verb
droop (third-person singular simple present droops, present participle drooping, simple past and past participle drooped)
- To hang downward; to sag.
- On the brown harvest tree / Droops the red cherry.1866, John Keegan Casey, “Maire My Girl”, in A Wreath of Shamrocks, Dublin: Robert S. McGee, page 20
- Synonyms:
- lop
- To slowly become limp; to bend gradually.
- Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; / While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- To lose all energy, enthusiasm or happiness; to flag.
- But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To allow to droop or sink.
- […] pithless arms, like to a wither’d vine / That droops his sapless branches to the ground;1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To proceed downward, or toward a close; to decline.
- […] let us forth, / I never from thy side henceforth to stray, / Wherere our days work lies, though now enjoind / Laborious, till day droop […]1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
Noun
drooping (plural droopings)
- An instance of something drooping.
Adjective
drooping (comparative more drooping, superlative most drooping)
- That droops or droop.
- drooping flowers
- Cocktails in a can are the new frontier for drooping drinks giants [title]2025 December 27, “Cocktails in a can are the new frontier for drooping drinks giants”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18
Forms of drooping
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | droopings |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more drooping |
| superlative | most drooping |
Origin of drooping
From droop + -ing.
Words formed from drooping
Words that rhyme with drooping
Questions about drooping
- What does drooping mean?
- Drooping means an instance of something drooping.
- What is drooping the present participle and gerund of?
- Drooping is the present participle and gerund of droop.
- What part of speech is drooping?
- Drooping can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce drooping?
- Drooping is pronounced /ˈdɹuːpɪŋ/.
- What is the plural of drooping?
- The plural of drooping is droopings.
Words near drooping in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: drooping (page history and authors); droop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-drooping.ogg.
Cite this entry: “drooping.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drooping. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.