pin-drop meaning: definition, quotations

pin-drop

noun

Figuratively, Idiomatic The sound of a small metal pin dropping onto the ground or a floor; notable because a falling pin makes almost no sound when it hits the ground except for when a setting is so quiet that even the smallest, negligible noise would be noticeable.

Like a pin-drop in a deep ocean, the news of Amos Tutuola's death came quite unceremoniously to Nigerians early this week. His passage became almost unnoticed [...]1999, Owomoyela, Oyekan, chapter 7, in Amos Tutuola revisited, page 147:
[...] a frail voice said, "Hello?" sounding more like a pin-drop than a thud.2013, Nancy Rue, chapter 12, in Sophie and Friends, page 116:

A small increment or amount.

He made two preparations: one pin-drop of blood on one slide, and a lump the size of a pea spread thin on another.1940, A. Roothaert, dutch vet, page 404:
You have to rub the body with just one pindrop of this ointment.1948, Mehta Hansa, “The Story of the Brahmin”, in The Adventures Of King Vikrama, page 53:

2 more examples

in his heart, a mere "pin drop" can change the perspective. Her tardiness and her getting lost a few minutes after they hung up, is already one "pin drop" too many.2011, Niles, J. R, Internet dating, page 192:
They also suggested I take constant antibiotics for weeks. I never had any infection, not one pin drop of pus.2020s, Dr Richard Schulze, “Regenerating Hones, Muscles, and Nerves”, in Save Your Life, page 399:

pin-drop

adj

Small or inconsequential.

There were poems compiled in Havering library, or in my 'pin-drop' study, according to a Poeclectic gameplan2002, Petrucci, Mario, “Voices, Voices everywhere...”, in The stamina of sheep : the Havering poems, page xviii:

Of or relating to the sound a pin makes when dropping.

Then Harrow made an announcement in a voice loud enough to freeze the deputies in their motion, and to bring the various cameras and microphones his way again. [...] Pin-drop silence.2010, Max Allan Collins and Matthew Clemens, You Can't Stop Me:

Related terms: one could hear a pin drop, pin-dropping