Word.ws English Dictionary

name-drop

name-drop verb: to casually mention a well-known or illustrious person or the titles of their works, often implying familiarity or association, especially in order to impress others, increase one's status, or to appear knowledgeable or fashionable.

Verb

name-drop (third-person singular simple present name-drops, present participle name-dropping, simple past and past participle name-dropped)

  1. (ambitransitive) To casually mention a well-known or illustrious person or the titles of their works, often implying familiarity or association, especially in order to impress others, increase one's status, or to appear knowledgeable or fashionable.
    Synonyms:
    namecheck

Synonyms of name-drop

Forms of name-drop

third-person singular presentname-drops
present participlename-dropping
past participlename-dropped
pastname-dropped
alternative formname drop
alternative formnamedrop

Origin of name-drop

From name + drop.

Questions about name-drop

What does name-drop mean?
Name-drop means to casually mention a well-known or illustrious person or the titles of their works, often implying familiarity or association, especially in order to impress others, increase one's status, or to appear knowledgeable or fashionable.
What part of speech is name-drop?
Name-drop is a verb.
What is the past tense of name-drop?
The past tense of name-drop is name-dropped.

Words near name-drop in the dictionary

  1. name-checked
  2. name-checking
  3. name-checks
  4. name-child
  5. name-children
  6. name-drop
  7. name-dropped
  8. name-dropper
  9. name-droppers
  10. name-dropping
  11. name-droppings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: name-drop (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: “name-drop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/name-drop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.