Word.ws English Dictionary

turkey drop

turkey drop noun: an event in which a turkey is dropped from a high altitude.

Noun

turkey drop (plural turkey drops)

  1. (literally) An event in which a turkey is dropped from a high altitude.
    • In the late 1980s, the tabloid sent two reporters to the turkey drop and ran an exposé titled "It's Sick! Yellville Turkeys Tossed Out of Planes—For Fun." The story described the "nightmarish scene" of the birds plunging to their death below.2018 November 20, Annie Lowrey, “Tossing a Bird That Does Not Fly Out of a Plane”, in The Atlantic
  2. (neologism, slang) A breakup occurring around Thanksgiving, especially associated with first-year college students who have become separated from their high school sweethearts.
    • A lot of Turkey Drops happen in your Freshman year at college — and it's not hard to see why. If any of you, like me, had an ill-fated high school into college relationship, you've been there.2017 October 26, Lea Rose Emery, “How To Avoid The "Turkey Drop", AKA Getting Dumped Around Thanksgiving”, in Bustle
    • It would be impossible to estimate the number of couples that participate in the turkey drop on an annual basis, but it’s probably a lot.2020 September 17, Hannah Smothers, Carina Hsieh, “Everything You Need to Know About the "Turkey Drop," aka Why Everyone Feels Like Breaking Up in November”, in Cosmopolitan

Verb

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

  1. (neologism, slang, transitive) To break up with a partner around Thanksgiving.
    • "We were both home and I wanted to do it face to face as opposed to a phone call or text," he [Robbie Schenker] said of turkey dropping his then long-distance girlfriend.2017 November 22, Sarah Polus, “The dreaded 'turkey drop': Here’s why couples break up around Thanksgiving”, in Washington Post
    • When small-town college girl Lucy comes home for Thanksgiving break, she suspects she will be "turkey dropped," or dumped by her high school boyfriend.2022 November 23, Lauren Sarner, “8 shows to watch and stream during Thanksgiving weekend 2022”, in New York Post

Forms of turkey drop

Noun
pluralturkey drops
Verb
third-person singular presentturkey drops
present participleturkey dropping
past participleturkey dropped
pastturkey dropped

Origin of turkey drop

Due to the association of turkeys with American Thanksgiving.

Questions about turkey drop

What does turkey drop mean?
Turkey drop means an event in which a turkey is dropped from a high altitude.
What part of speech is turkey drop?
Turkey drop can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of turkey drop?
The plural of turkey drop is turkey drops.

Words near turkey drop in the dictionary

  1. turkey coma
  2. turkey comas
  3. turkey corn
  4. Turkey Creek
  5. Turkey Day
  6. turkey drop
  7. turkey dropped
  8. turkey dropping
  9. turkey droppings
  10. turkey drops
  11. turkey frill

Source and license

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