Dictionaries › English

draft

Pronunciation: /dɹɑːft/

The English word “draft” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
  2. The draw through a flue of gasses or smoke resulting from a combustion process.
  3. An act of drinking.
  4. The quantity of liquid (such as water, alcohol, or medicine) drunk in one swallow.
  5. A dose (of medicine, alcohol, etc.).
  6. Liquid, especially beer or other alcohol, drawn from a cask or keg rather than a bottle or can.
  7. The depth of water needed to float a particular ship; the depth from the waterline to the bottom of a vessel's hull; the depth of water drawn by a vessel.
  8. A version of a written work (such as a book or paper) or drawing.
  9. An unsent e-mail.
  10. A preliminary sketch or outline for a plan.
  11. An order for money to be paid; the document that states it: a cheque, note, bond, bill of exchange, money order, or IOU.
  12. Conscription; the system of forcing people to serve in the military.
  13. A person who has been drafted; a conscript or draftee.
  14. A system of forcing or convincing people to take an elected position.
  15. A system of assigning rookie players to professional sports teams.
  16. A style of play in collectible card games, where players select from a shared pool of cards.
  17. A quantity that is requisitioned or drawn out from a larger population.
  18. The bevel given to the pattern for a casting, so that it can be drawn from the sand without damaging the mould.
  19. The pulling force (tension) on couplers and draft gear during a slack (stretched) condition.
  20. The action or an act (especially of a beast of burden or vehicle) of pulling something along or back.

Etymology

A phonetic spelling of draught (compare laughter), from Middle English draught, draght (“that which is pulled; that which is drawn up, a design”), from Old English *dreaht, *dræht, from Proto-West Germanic *drahti, *drahtu, from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz (“a pulling, drawing”). Cognate with Dutch dracht, German Tracht, Icelandic dráttur. By surface analysis, draw + -t.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “draft” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.