Your English: Phrasal verbs: drop

‘Support for the government’s policies has begun to drop away.’ If things drop away, they become smaller in amount or number. The phrasal verb drop off can be used in a similar way, as in ‘My energy levels tend to drop off in the middle of the afternoon’. 

If you drop in on someone, you visit them for a short time, as in ‘I usually drop in on my grandparents on Sunday afternoons’. The verb can also be used intransitively without on, as in ‘I’ll drop in for a while after work tomorrow’. Drop by and drop round can be used with the same meaning. 

If you drop someone off, you leave someone somewhere after taking them there by car, as in ‘Could you drop me off near the railway station?’ The same verb can be used with objects, meaning to deliver, as in ‘I’ll drop the posters off on my way home tomorrow evening’. 

To drop off can also mean to fall asleep, as in ‘My grandfather always drops off when he watches golf on television’. The phrasal verbs doze off and nod off have the same meaning. 

To drop out means to leave a college or university before completing a course of study, as in ‘A substantial number of students drop out of university at the end of their first year’. It is also possible to drop out of a race or a competition before it has finished, as in ‘Weather conditions were so adverse that many of the runners dropped out before they had reached halfway’.