APAD: drop
Meaning:
Breath-takingly beautiful.
Background:
It's in print since at least the 1970s and may have been in use as street slang
well before that. A report of a concert given by Sonny and Cher at the Hirsch
Coliseum, printed in the Shreveport Times, October 1972, says:
"Cher, drop-dead gorgeous in a second skin of silver, pink, purple and red
sequins."
The phrase struck a chord and there are many references to it in newspapers and
journals from very soon after that.
It didn't arrive out of the blue. The term "drop dead", meaning excellent had
been around since at least 1962. In The New York Herald-Tribune, January 1962,
we have:
"Fashions from Florence not drop-dead. For almost the first time in history
Simonetta failed to deliver an absolutely drop-dead collection."
It got picked up as an intensifier for various things, as here from the
Washington Post, July 1980:
"For drop dead chic food, Harborplace has a sushi and tempura bar."
Of course, "drop dead" has also been used as a term demonstrating dislike for
some time. This originated in the US in the 1930s.
...
- www.phrases.org.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't remember this phrase from GRE and TOEFL but met it at least twice in
"The Black Book," a Chicago crime story, by Patterson and Ellis. I'm sure I've
heard it in the wild and will hear it again if I'm not asleep.
Compared with "breath-takingly," the cartoony "drop-dead" seems to say "It's
great but get hold of yourself and stay cool, buddy."