Word.ws English Dictionary

drop one's beads

drop one's beads verb: to reveal one's homosexuality.

Verb

drop one's beads (third-person singular simple present drops one's beads, present participle dropping one's beads, simple past and past participle dropped one's beads)

  1. (slang) To reveal one's homosexuality.
    • But they will “drop their beads” (as queens used to say) one by one, until the full necklace lies on the floor. He'll mention he likes the ballet, you'll tell him of your interest in opera.1977, Charles Silverstein, Edmund White, The Joy of Gay Sex, New York: Crown Publishers, →ISBN, page 124

Forms of drop one's beads

third-person singular presentdrops one's beads
present participledropping one's beads
past participledropped one's beads
pastdropped one's beads

Questions about drop one's beads

What does drop one's beads mean?
Drop one's beads means to reveal one's homosexuality.
What part of speech is drop one's beads?
Drop one's beads is a verb.
What is the past tense of drop one's beads?
The past tense of drop one's beads is dropped one's beads.

Words near drop one's beads in the dictionary

  1. drop nets
  2. drop off
  3. drop off the hooks
  4. drop off the map
  5. drop off the radar
  6. drop one's beads
  7. drop one's bundle
  8. drop one's guard
  9. drop one's guts
  10. drop out
  11. drop pass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drop one's beads (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.

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