DCHP-2

drop the puck drop of the puck, puck drop, when the puck drops DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• 1 expression — Hockey

  the dropping of a hockey puck onto the ice to signal the start of a game.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — The significance of the sport of hockey in Canada's social and historical development warrants the treatment of hockey terms as culturally significant (see CBC reference). The literal meaning, presented here in meaning 1, has given rise to non-hockey related meanings (see meaning 3).

  See also: hockey  puck  

• 2 expression — in figurative use, Hockey

  the start of something hockey-related, but not specifically in reference to the start of a hockey game.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Because of the significance of the puck drop as the start of a hockey game, as shown by meaning 1, the phrase has been adopted by news outlets as a way to express the beginning or introduction of something more generally hockey-related, particularly in headlines (for example, see the 1992 and 2012 quotations). This is the most prevalent figurative meaning of the expression.

• 3 expression — in figurative use

  the start or introduction of something.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — As a semantic generalization of meaning 2, there are also examples of the expression extending beyond the semantic domain of hockey.