Definition of "droop"

On the brown harvest treeDroops the red cherry.

1866, John Keegan Casey, “Maire My Girl”, in A Wreath of Shamrocks‎, Dublin: Robert S. McGee, page 20

Long before Shap platform showed up around a corner and the two arms on the gradient post drooped in both directions at once, Duchess of Buccleuch's amiable throbbing purr at the stack [funnel, chimney] had become a fierce freight-engine bark, as she resolutely dragged at her enormous load.

1949 January and February, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–1”, in Railway Magazine, page 12

I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.

a. 1992, quote attributed to Sylvester Stallone

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;While night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]

The Grapes that on it hung were black, and allThe Vines supported and from drooping staidWith silver Props, that down they could not fall […]

1676, Thomas Hobbes, transl., Homer’s Iliads in English‎, London: William Crook, Book 18, p. 289

Long after his cigar burnt bitter, he sat with eyes fixed on the blaze. When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs and ball-gown kneeling on the hearth […].

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter III, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

Others who conscientiously attended the Technical College at night often drooped over their desks in a doze, and one does not wonder at it.

1944 September and October, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—I”, in Railway Magazine, page 285

His head had drooped with his hair across his face.

2010, john g rees, Halocline‎

She was trying to hang in, but her chin was drooping onto her chest.

2012, Howie Carr, Hard Knocks‎

But wherefore do you droop? why look you sad?

c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]

Amidst the peaceful Triumphs of his Reign,What wonder if the kindly beams he shedReviv’d the drooping Arts again […]

1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis‎, London: Jacob Tonson, XII, p. 17

I saw him accidentally once or twice about 10 Days before he died, and observed he began very much to Droop and Languish […]

1711, [Jonathan Swift], Miscellanies in Prose and Verse, London: […] John Morphew […], published 1711, page 284

I’ll animate the Soldier’s drooping Courage,With Love of Freedom, and Contempt of Life.

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, Act IV, scene i, page 5

And I should tell him all my pain,⁠And how my life had droop’d of late,⁠And he should sorrow o’er my stateAnd marvel what possess’d my brain; […]

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto XIV, page 22

[…] pithless arms, like to a wither’d vineThat droops his sapless branches to the ground;

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene v]

Down in the mire he droops his head; / Forgotten, not forgiven.

1892, Arthur Christopher Benson, “Knapweed” in Le Cahier Jaune: Poems, Eton: privately printed, p. 62

[…] let us forth,I never from thy side henceforth to stray,Wherere our days work lies, though now enjoindLaborious, till day droop […]

1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 175-178

[…] and now when dayDroop’d, and the chapel tinkled, mixt with thoseSix hundred maidens clad in purest white […]

1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part II”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], page 46