“You’re late again! What’s your excuse this time?”

“I’m sorry. But Mohan’s mother called just as I was leaving. She sounded terribly worried. Wanted me to talk to him.”

“His big interview is today, isn’t it? Did he look and sound nervous?”

“Very nervous. Isn’t able to sit in one place. He’s constantly pacing up and down. What’s worse, he hasn’t eaten anything since last night.”

“That’s not good. If he doesn’t eat anything, his stomach may start making a strange noise during the interview.”

“That’s what I said. I told him to eat something, but he said he’s too nervous to eat. He’s afraid of throwing up.”

“Mohan needs to chillax. Nothing is likely to…”

“Chillax? What does it mean?”

“It’s a combination of two words. Chill and relax. Do you know what ‘chill’ means?”

“Of course, I do. In informal contexts, the word is mostly used to mean ‘relax’. For example, I chilled during the weekend.”

“Very good. When you ‘chillax’, you calm yourself down and relax. Sometimes, you do absolutely nothing. If you want to make a name for yourself, you need to work harder. Chillaxing is not going to get you anywhere.”

“How about this example? After completing the project, Sheela decided to take some time off and chillax in a hill station.”

“Sounds good. Now then, did you….”

“Did you chillax this weekend by watching the movie that I’d recommended?”

“I chillaxed all right, but I ...”

“What did you think of the movie? Wasn’t it great? Especially, the climax?”

“Difficult to say. You see, half way through the film, I’d dropped off.”

“Dropped off? You dropped someone off?”

“I didn’t have to drop off anyone. I dropped off.”

“When you ‘drop someone off’ somewhere, you take the person to that place in a vehicle and leave them. Isn’t that what it means?”

“Yes, that’s right! But what I’m…”

“For example, my cousin insisted on dropping me off at the railway station.”

“That’s a good example. But I didn’t say that I dropped someone off. I said, I’d dropped off.”

“You dropped off? Does it mean you fell out of your chair or something?”

“No, it doesn’t. When you ‘drop off’, you fall asleep. You don’t intend to, but you doze off. In this case, you don’t lie down. You usually fall asleep while sitting.”

“It happens to my father when he’s watching TV. He drops off.”

“It happens to a lot of people. Here’s another example. I dropped off several times during the course of the boring lecture.”

“ After having played in the hot sun all day, several children were seen dropping off at the dining table.”

“When you ‘drop off’, you sleep for a very short time.”

“I see. And I suppose the expression is used mostly in informal contexts?”

“Yes, that’s right! Another expression which has more or less the same meaning is ‘nod off’.”

“ Several students nodded off while watching the documentary.”

“Let’s watch the rest of the movie tomorrow. You’ve been nodding off every now and then.”

“I’ll make a move. I want to see if Mohan has managed to chillax.”

The ‘Know Your English’ column completes forty years!

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