Word.ws English Dictionary

gotten the drop on

gotten the drop on is the past participle of get the drop on.

Meaning of get the drop on

Verb

get the drop on (third-person singular simple present gets the drop on, present participle getting the drop on, simple past got the drop on, past participle (UK) got the drop on or (US) gotten the drop on)

  1. (informal, transitive) To point one's firearm at another person, thereby gaining dominance in a situation.
    • He got the drop on them and proceeded to shoot and kill them before they could fire a shot or respond.
  2. (broadly, informal, transitive) To obtain an advantage over another person, by acting before that person.
    • We’re always getting the drop on our competitors because the owner really knows the business and can act fast.
    Synonyms:
    beat to the punch, get the jump on

Questions about gotten the drop on

What is gotten the drop on the past participle of?
Gotten the drop on is the past participle of get the drop on.

Words near gotten the drop on in the dictionary

  1. gotten the bullet
  2. gotten the chop
  3. gotten the door
  4. gotten the drawers
  5. gotten the drift
  6. gotten the drop on
  7. gotten the goods on
  8. gotten the hang of
  9. gotten the hint
  10. gotten the idea
  11. gotten the job done

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gotten the drop on (page history and authors); get the drop on (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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Cite this entry: “gotten the drop on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gotten_the_drop_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.