From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdropoutdrop‧out /ˈdrɒpaʊt $ ˈdrɑːp-/ noun [countable] 1 SESSYsomeone who leaves school or college before they have finished a high school dropout2 SSOsomeone who refuses to take part in ordinary society because they do not agree with its social practices, moral standards etc
Examples from the Corpus
dropout• You may see yourself as a dropout or a failure.• Cristalena was still in school, he was a dropout... how would they get the money to survive?• Schools of choice have lower dropout rates, fewer discipline problems, better student attitudes, and higher teacher satisfaction.• He was a kind of dropout.• His Hal would be no rollicking dropout.• His mother is a high-school dropout, trying to raise four children on less than $500 a month.• About half of the prisoners are high-school dropouts.• This is why the dropout rate amongst would-be dealers is so phenomenal.• The dropouts from the first part of the ecological exam are easy to identify as they are, after all, dead.• Half of them were dropouts returning to school. 