dropper, noun

Origin:
New Zealand EnglishShow more Probably originally New Zealand English.
A light wooden, iron, or wire upright, placed between the planted posts of a fence to keep the wires taut and in a parallel position.
Note:
Also N.Z. and Australian English.
1897 E. Prov. Herald 9 Apr. (advt)Sole agents for ‘Lochrin’ Patent Fencing, Standards, Droppers, Straining Pillars, Farm Gates, etc.
1914 Farmer’s Annual p.xli (advt)Barbed and Plain Wires, all gauges, English and American Fencing Standards and Droppers,..Jackal netting.
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 269The ‘ordinary’ fence..consists of five barbed or six plain wires, standards of iron or wood, not more than 15 or 20 yards apart, with four droppers in between.
1951 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Bekkersdal Marathon (1971) 149What kind of fence is it that they are going to put up?..Will it have standards that you pull out and bend the fence down by the droppers for the cattle to walk over on bucksails?
1968 Farmer’s Weekly 3 Jan. 93 (advt)Poles and droppers. Selected round pine, any lengths and widths, for rough building purposes and fencing.
1972 Farmer’s Weekly 21 Apr. 79Creosoted non-bending wattle droppers. Standard length about 5cm thick.
1989 J. du P. Bothma Game Ranch Management 50Types of material used for droppers: Wooden droppers: SABS creosote or tanalith-treated blue-gum (not pine) droppers. Iscor ridgeback iron droppers. Cable droppers — single old mine cables. Binding wire.
1990 M.M. Hacksley (tr. of E. van Heerden) in Lynx 217We hauled out the cross that we had nailed together out of old fence-droppers and a cut down telephone pole.
A light wooden, iron, or wire upright, placed between the planted posts of a fence to keep the wires taut and in a parallel position.
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18971990
droog-my-keel, nounn.drost, nounn.
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