drop top
1
7.4
- noun
- /drɒp tɒp/
:
cabriolet
- We rented a classic drop top for our road trip along the coast.
Examples
-
Hey, look, that's your drop top outside?
-
On a sunny day, nothing beats driving a drop top with the wind in your hair.
-
It's small by modern standards, but comfortable, and with the windows down, it's the next best thing to riding in a drop top.
Blog text (32) -
The gas station attendant said they were in a drop top.
-
What is that, a drop-top?
-
An original rendering from AE shows how an Adam drop-top would work and look.
Blog text (21) -
Eldorado drop top docked at the curb.
Fiction book (2002) -
He proudly showed off his new drop top to his friends at the car meet.
Synonyms
86
3.9
A car with a roof that folds back
7
9.9
A four-wheeled vehicle with a folding roof, like a carriage pulled by horses
Having a soft roof that folds down on a car
How Open
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun denotes a top that 'drops' — a roof that can be folded down — so a learner who knows 'drop' and 'top' can compositionally infer a vehicle with a removable/folding roof. This modifier+noun compounding is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common pattern (often hyphenated as 'drop-top'), making the meaning predictable despite its informal register.
Etymology
The noun drop top comes from the idea of a car whose top, the roof, can drop or fold down out of sight. That's why drop top means a 'convertible', a car with a roof you can lower.