dropout

Or drop-out

[drop-out]

noun

1. an act or instance of dropping out.

2. a student who withdraws before completing a course of instruction.

3. a student who withdraws from high school after having reached the legal age to do so.

4. a person who withdraws from established society, especially to pursue an alternate lifestyle.

5. a person who withdraws from a competition, job, task, etc..

   the first dropout from the presidential race.

6. Rugby.,  a drop kick made by a defending team from within its own 25-yard (23-meter) line as a result of a touchdown or of the ball's having touched or gone outside of a touch-in-goal line or the dead-ball line.

7. Also called highlight halftone. Printing, Photography.,  a halftone negative or plate in which dots have been eliminated from highlights by continued etching, burning in, opaquing, or the like.

8. Also called dropout error. the loss of portions of the information on a recorded magnetic tape due to contamination of the magnetic medium or poor contact with the tape heads.

dropout

/ ˈdrɒpˌaʊt /

noun

1. a student who fails to complete a school or college course

2. a person who rejects conventional society

3. drop-out. rugby a drop kick taken by the defending team to restart play, as after a touchdown

4. drop-out. electronics a momentary loss of signal in a magnetic recording medium as a result of an imperfection in its magnetic coating

verb

1. to abandon or withdraw from (a school, social group, job, etc)

Word History and Origins

Origin of dropout¹

1925–30, noun use of verb phrase drop out

Example Sentences

Many blame grade inflation and an effort to avoid a high school dropout epidemic.

From Los Angeles Times

The dropout rate remains high, though – and some students take longer than the standard two-years to complete the course.

From BBC

It’s hard to say whether negative-minded high school dropout Romain will wind up on the other side of what troubles him.

From Los Angeles Times

We were both dropouts, which is not a bad thing as long as you have a vision of the future.

From Los Angeles Times

The billionaire financier who transformed Dole into the world’s largest producer of fruits and vegetables was a dyslexic high school dropout who made and lost a fortune by the time he was 40.

From Los Angeles Times