Drag
Drag , noun
[See 3d Dredge.]
A confection; a comfit; a drug. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
Drag , transitive verb
[Old English draggen; akin to Swedish dragga to search with a grapnel, from dragg grapnel, from draga to draw, the same word as English draw. {not transcribed} See Draw.]
1.
To draw slowly or heavily onward; to pull along the ground by main force; to haul; to trail; -- applied to drawing heavy or resisting bodies or those inapt for drawing, with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing.
Dragged by the cords which through his feet were thrust.
The grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.
A needless Alexandrine ends the song
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
2.
To break, as land, by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow; to draw a drag along the bottom of, as a stream or other water; hence, to search, as by means of a drag.
Then while I dragged my brains for such a song.
3.
To draw along, as something burdensome; hence, to pass in pain or with difficulty.
Have dragged a lingering life.
Collocations (1)
To drag an anchor (Nautical) , to trail it along the bottom when the anchor will not hold the ship.
Drag , intransitive verb
1.
To be drawn along, as a rope or dress, on the ground; to trail; to be moved onward along the ground, or along the bottom of the sea, as an anchor that does not hold.
2.
To move onward heavily, laboriously, or slowly; to advance with weary effort; to go on lingeringly.
The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun.
Long, open panegyric drags at best.
3.
To serve as a clog or hindrance; to hold back.
A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her.
4.
To fish with a dragnet.
Drag , noun
[See Drag, transitive verb, and compare Dray a cart, and 1st Dredge.]
1.
The act of dragging; anything which is dragged.
2.
A net, or an apparatus, to be drawn along the bottom under water, as in fishing, searching for drowned persons, etc.
3.
A kind of sledge for conveying heavy bodies; also, a kind of low car or handcart; as, a stone drag.
4.
A heavy coach with seats on top; also, a heavy carriage. [Collog.] — Thackeray
5.
A heavy harrow, for breaking up ground.
6.
(a) Anything towed in the water to retard a ship's progress, or to keep her head up to the wind; esp., a canvas bag with a hooped mouth, so used. See Drag sail (below).
(b)
Also, a skid or shoe, for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel.
(c)
Hence, anything that retards; a clog; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment.
My lectures were only a pleasure to me, and no drag.
7.
Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged.
Had a drag in his walk.
8.
(Founding) The bottom part of a flask or mold, the upper part being the cope.
9.
(Masonry) A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.
10.
(Marine Engineering) The difference between the speed of a screw steamer under sail and that of the screw when the ship outruns the screw; or between the propulsive effects of the different floats of a paddle wheel. See Citation under Drag, v. i., 3.
Collocations (2)
Drag sail (Nautical) , a sail or canvas rigged on a stout frame, to be dragged by a vessel through the water in order to keep her head to the wind or to prevent drifting; -- called also drift sail, drag sheet, drag anchor, sea anchor, floating anchor, etc.
Drag twist (Mining) , a spiral hook at the end of a rod for cleaning drilled holes.