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I was reading the script of the TV series called Blacklist:

Paramedic: I’ve never worked with any of these people before. I was told to be on standby for a 48–hour window. They said I had under four minutes to pull a chip from your neck.

Red: Who told you you had four minutes?

Paramedic: The people who paid me.

Red: How were you paid?

Paramedic: Cash, at a drop.

Red: Where?

Paramedic: It was always a different place, different locations. They picked me up in an ambulance. I didn’t even know where we were going.

In the bold sentence, I'm wondering what does at a drop mean? I saw in the dictionary that a drop of something means a small amount of something, but I don't think that's what's meant here.

I've also asked from ChatGPT, which gives the following answer, which I suspect may be wrong. Since I couldn't find this usage on the internet,

The phrase "at a drop" refers to a predetermined, often secret, location where an exchange takes place. In this context, it means the paramedic was paid in cash at a specific place arranged beforehand, likely to maintain discretion and avoid detection. This term is often used in situations involving clandestine or undercover activities.

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In this case ChatGPT is correct.

One of Oxford's definitions of drop as a noun is

a hiding place for stolen, illicit, or secret things.

"the lavatory's water cistern could be used as a letter drop"

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  • Thanks for the answer! It is very strange. This definition is not mentioned in the Oxford on this site, nor in the software I'm using. But I could find it in the Google book here.
    – User
    Commented Jun 17 at 9:33
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    I found that definition by googling 'drop definition'; the first result is definitions from 'Oxford Languages'. I wouldn't expect that definition to be in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary because it's not the kind of word a learner of basic English would need to know!
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jun 17 at 9:52
  • I'm not sure I agree with Oxford's definition, though. Surely the point of a drop is not that it is a hiding place, but that it is a place where illicit things can be exchanged - one person "drops off" the money/drugs/stolen secrets/whatever and the other person later comes and picks it up. Cambridge for example has "the situation in which something is left in a place and later collected by someone else, usually a spy"
    – Daniel Roseman
    Commented Jun 17 at 11:18
  • Merriam-Webster has "a place or central depository to which something (such as mail, money, or stolen property) is brought for distribution or transmission". This fits with the definition of a mail drop as a business service that acts as an intermediary between postal service and individuals, as well as the criminal and spycraft uses; and there's the airport baggage drop (a place you leave luggage to be transported).
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jun 17 at 14:13
  • @DanielRoseman A drop must not be immediately obvious to others, though, or else it can be taken by the wrong recipient. Typically it's a place to hide something with the intent that only someone who knows where it is can retrieve it - the hiding is a necessary part of ensuring the exchange. You wouldn't conduct a drop by leaving a pile of cash in plain view on a park bench.
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Commented Jun 17 at 16:25
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ChatGPT was partially correct, but you wouldn't typically do an exchange at a drop. It's called a drop because one person drops the item there, and another person picks the item up later.

From the choice of words, I would assume that the paramedic specified that they were paid in cash "at a drop" to make it clear that they did not meet face-to-face with the person who paid them. Rather than "maintaining discretion and avoiding detection", the purpose of that payment method was to make sure that the paramedic cannot identify the people who paid him. That's the important thing to understand from that line of dialogue.

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