drop out

1. 1.

   give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope; admit defeat

   “In the second round, the challenger gave up”

   Synonymsgive upfall by the waysidedrop by the waysidethrow inthrow in the towelquitchuck up the sponge

   Antonymsenter
2. 2.

   withdraw from established society, especially because of disillusion with conventional values

   “She hasn't heard from her brother in years--he dropped out after moving to California”

   Broaderretire
3. 3.

   leave school or an educational program prematurely

   “Many students drop out because they are not prepared for our challenging program”

   Broaderleave

Questions about drop out

What does drop out mean?

drop out means "give up in the face of defeat of lacking hope; admit defeat". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for drop out?

Close synonyms include give up, fall by the wayside, drop by the wayside, throw in, throw in the towel. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of drop out?

The recorded antonyms are enter.

Is drop out a common word?

drop out is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.