drop out

Questions about drop out

What is another word for drop out?

It depends which drop out you mean. In the sense “give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope; admit defeat”, the synonyms are give up, fall by the wayside, drop by the wayside, throw in, throw in the towel, quit, chuck up the sponge. Across all 3 senses there are 7 distinct synonyms, and they are not interchangeable with each other — this page lists them under the sense each one belongs to.

What is the opposite of drop out?

The recorded antonym is enter. Opposites are sense-specific too: this page shows which meaning each one is the opposite of, because a word rarely has a single opposite that holds for all of its senses.

Why are the synonyms for drop out split into groups?

Because drop out carries 3 recorded senses and each has its own set of substitutes. A single flat list would put words from unrelated meanings side by side with nothing to tell them apart, which is exactly how a writer picks the wrong one. The grouping comes from WordNet's synsets, not from an editorial judgement of ours.

Where do the synonyms for drop out come from?

From Princeton University's WordNet, a lexical database maintained by lexicographers since 1985. A synonym here means a word form that shares a synset with this word — a set of forms interchangeable in one recorded context. Nothing on this page is generated by a language model.

Other views of drop out

• Full entry for drop outAll 3 senses, with examples, usage labels, syllables and pronunciation.
• Rhymes for drop outWhether this word can be rhymed at all — it is not in the pronouncing dictionary.
• Thesaurus homeHow WordNet synsets work, and the collections built for synonym work.