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 high·light half·tone [hahy, -lahyt , haf, -tohn]. 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, Americanism; noun use of verb phrase drop out

Example Sentences

The dropout rate of first-year health and science T-level students was even higher at 31%, according to a report from the Education Policy Institute.

From BBC

Health students saw high levels of dropouts after botched exam papers in 2022, which saw the exam board responsible fined £300,000.

From BBC

Because he was a gang dropout, he was considered a likely target of violence and was housed alone.

From Los Angeles Times

One can hear the wonder still evident in his voice when he recalls the improbable trajectory of the soft-spoken grade-school dropout who left this place behind and became a baseball icon.

From Los Angeles Times

Last week, Indian authorities arrested a 17-year-old school dropout for creating a social media account to issue such threats.

From BBC