Airdrop
name, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The act of delivering goods, equipment, or personnel by dropping them from an aircraft in flight.
- 2 delivery of supplies or equipment or personnel by dropping them by parachute from an aircraft wordnet
- 3 The distribution of free tokens to help bootstrap a new cryptocurrency.
"But Facebook is also likely to carry out what’s known in cryptocurrency circles as an “air drop”, handing out small amounts of currency for free in an effort to kickstart the ecosystem."
- 1 To deliver goods, equipment, or personnel by dropping them from an aircraft in flight.
"The Mako is powered by a sealed hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell, and includes a small element zero core. While not large enough to nullify the vehicle’s mass, the core can reduce it enough to be safely air-dropped."
- 2 To transfer a file using AirDrop. ditransitive, intransitive
"“Another day another group of french^([sic]) teens trying to AirDrop me memes on the subway,” one woman tweeted. “In a crowd of teens and they keep trying to AirDrop me memes!!!” said another. One young Twitter user joked that she was going to a music festival last weekend “just to AirDrop.”"
- 3 To distribute free tokens to help bootstrap a new cryptocurrency.
- 4 Alternative letter-case form of AirDrop. alt-of
- 1 A wireless service of Apple Inc. which can transfer files among supported Macintosh computers and iOS devices by means of close-range wireless communication.
Example
More examples"But Facebook is also likely to carry out what’s known in cryptocurrency circles as an “air drop”, handing out small amounts of currency for free in an effort to kickstart the ecosystem."
Etymology
From air + drop.
By the analogy of an airdrop, in which items are delivered by dropping them from an aircraft in flight.
More for "airdrop"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.