a quick drop and a sudden stop

English

Etymology

Popular due to the internal rhyme of drop with stop.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ə.kwĭk'drŏpʹĭnəsŭ'dn.stŏpʹ, IPA(key): [ə ˌkwɪk ˈdɹɒp ən ə ˌsʌdn̩ ˈstɒp]

Noun

a quick drop and a sudden stop

  1. (idiomatic) A fall to one’s death, especially by hanging.
    • 2005 January 8, “Bookman”, alt.fan.heinlein (Google group): Clarke Survives Tsunamis:
      > But, yeah, the death penalty is a little stiff just for pretentious writing.
      > Punning now… it’d be a capital idea, there.
      Let’s not start _that_ row. Give it a quick drop and a sudden stop, rather than letting them hang…
    • 2006, John Hirchak, Ghosts of Old Wilmington, page 27 (The History Press; →ISBN, →ISBN):
      If you were lucky enough to survive all this lunacy, you always risked capture. There your story would end with a quick drop and a sudden stop, for piracy was punishable by hanging.
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