Word.ws English Dictionary

pin-drop

pin-drop noun: the sound of a small metal pin dropping onto the ground or a floor; notable because a falling pin makes almost no sound when it hits the ground except for when a setting is so quiet that even the smallest, negligible noise would be noticeable.

Noun

pin-drop (plural pin-drops)

  1. (figuratively, idiomatic) The sound of a small metal pin dropping onto the ground or a floor; notable because a falling pin makes almost no sound when it hits the ground except for when a setting is so quiet that even the smallest, negligible noise would be noticeable.
    • Like a pin-drop in a deep ocean, the news of Amos Tutuola's death came quite unceremoniously to Nigerians early this week. His passage became almost unnoticed [...]1999, Owomoyela, Oyekan, chapter 7, in Amos Tutuola revisited, page 147
    • [...] a frail voice said, "Hello?" sounding more like a pin-drop than a thud.2013, Nancy Rue, chapter 12, in Sophie and Friends, page 116
  2. A small increment or amount.
    • He made two preparations: one pin-drop of blood on one slide, and a lump the size of a pea spread thin on another.1940, A. Roothaert, dutch vet, page 404
    • You have to rub the body with just one pindrop of this ointment.1948, Mehta Hansa, “The Story of the Brahmin”, in The Adventures Of King Vikrama, page 53

Adjective

pin-drop (comparative more pin-drop, superlative most pin-drop)

  1. Small or inconsequential.
    • There were poems compiled in Havering library, or in my 'pin-drop' study, according to a Poeclectic gameplan2002, Petrucci, Mario, “Voices, Voices everywhere...”, in The stamina of sheep : the Havering poems, page xviii
  2. Of or relating to the sound a pin makes when dropping.
    • Then Harrow made an announcement in a voice loud enough to freeze the deputies in their motion, and to bring the various cameras and microphones his way again. [...] Pin-drop silence.2010, Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens, You Can't Stop Me

Forms of pin-drop

Noun
pluralpin-drops
Adjective
comparativemore pin-drop
superlativemost pin-drop

Questions about pin-drop

What does pin-drop mean?
Pin-drop means the sound of a small metal pin dropping onto the ground or a floor; notable because a falling pin makes almost no sound when it hits the ground except for when a setting is so quiet that even the smallest, negligible noise would be noticeable.
What part of speech is pin-drop?
Pin-drop can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of pin-drop?
The plural of pin-drop is pin-drops.

Words near pin-drop in the dictionary

  1. pin-brained
  2. pin-cushion
  3. pin-cushioned
  4. pin-cushioning
  5. pin-cushions
  6. pin-drop
  7. pin-dropping
  8. pin-eyed
  9. pin-head
  10. pin-headed
  11. pin-heads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pin-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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