drag

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

drag

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: drăg, IPA^(key): /dɹæɡ/,

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɡ

Etymology 1

Capitol St., the main drag of Charleston, June 1973.

From Middle English draggen (“to drag”), early Middle English dragen (“to draw, carry”), confluence of Old English dragan (“to drag, draw, draw oneself, go, protract”) and Old Norse draga (“to draw, attract”); both from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to draw, drag”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to draw, drag”).

Verb sense influenced due to association with the noun drag (“that which is hauled or dragged”), related to Low German dragge (“a drag-anchor, grapnel”). Cognate with Danish drægge (“to dredge”), Danish drage (“to draw, attract”), Swedish dragga (“to drag, drag anchor, sweep”), Swedish draga (“to draw, go”), Icelandic draga (“to drag, pull”). Doublet of draw.

Noun

drag (countable and uncountable, plural drags)

1. (physics, uncountable) Resistance of a fluid to something moving through it.

   When designing cars, manufacturers have to take drag into consideration.

2. (by analogy with above) Any force acting in opposition to the motion of an object.

   A high thrust-to-weight ratio helps a rocket to overcome the effects of gravity drag.

4. (countable, foundry) The bottom part of a sand casting mold.

   Coordinate term: cope

5. (countable) A device dragged along the bottom of a body of water in search of something, e.g. a dead body, or in fishing.
6. (countable, informal) A systematic search for someone over a wide area, especially by the authorities; a dragnet.
   • 1920 June, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 151, column 3:

     "He told me that he was certain that Coates shot at him. We threw out a drag and landed Coates within an hour."

7. (countable, music) A double drum-stroke played at twice the speed of the context in which it is placed.
8. (countable, informal) A puff on a cigarette or joint.

   Synonyms: lug, pull

   He got high after just one drag of the joint.

   Give me a drag on that roach!

9. (countable, slang) Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating, or disappointing; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment.

   Travelling to work in the rush hour is a real drag.

   • December 24, 1865, James David Forbes, letter to Dr. Symonds

     My lectures were only a pleasure to me, and no drag.

   • 1965, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Positively 4th Street”:

     Yes, I wish that for just one time / You could stand inside my shoes / You'd know what a drag it is / To see you

10. (countable, slang) A long open horse-drawn carriage with transverse or side seats.
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 10, in The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

      I’m down here readin’ for my little go during the Long, only I come over from Baymouth pretty often in my drag…

    • 1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening:

      Alcee Arobin and Mrs. Highcamp called for her one bright afternoon in Arobin's drag.

11. (countable, slang) A street.

    the main drag

    a back drag

12. (countable) The scent-path left by dragging a fox, or some other substance such as aniseed, for training hounds to follow scents.

    to run a drag

13. (countable, snooker) A large amount of backspin on the cue ball, causing the cue ball to slow down.
14. A heavy harrow for breaking up ground.
15. A kind of sledge for conveying heavy objects; also, a kind of low car or handcart.

    a stone drag

16. (metallurgy) The bottom part of a flask or mould, the upper part being the cope.
17. (masonry) A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.
18. (nautical) 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.
19. Anything towed in the water to retard a ship's progress, or to keep her head up to the wind; especially, a canvas bag with a hooped mouth (drag sail), so used.
20. A pulled load.
    • 1959 October, “South of Doncaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 470, photo caption:

      A northbound drag of furnace coal on the former South Yorkshire Joint Line crosses the East Coast main line near Black Carr behind Class "O4/1" 2-8-0 No. 63693.

21. A skid or shoe for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel.
22. Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged.
    • c. 1800, William Hazlitt, My First Acquaintance with Poets:

      Had a drag in his walk.

24. (uncountable, music) Witch house music.
    • 2010 March 8, Scott Wright, quoting Heather Marlatt, “Scene and heard: Drag”, in The Guardian‎:

      “Our music is not like some other types where the energy is back and forth – music considered drag is like giving up oneself, to be pulled and controlled,” she says.

    • 2010 September 29, Paul Lester, “New band of the day - No 877: oOoOO”, in The Guardian‎:

      Whatever the appellation, these artists are doing some amazing stuff. Haunted house and drag are probably the most apposite terms because the music sounds like ghostly apparitions of old dance tunes, only at half-speed.

    • 2010 December 2, Paul Lester, “New band of the day – No 922: Balam Acab”, in The Guardian‎:

      They call this music drag because it's like dance music dragged down by the ponderous weight of existence (there's a Balam Acab track called Heavy Living Things); they call it witch house because it haunts you long after you stop listening.

    • 2011 January 24, David Wicik, “Exorcising the Ghost: oOoOO breaks down the buzz about “drag””, in Newcity:

      In your own words, what is drag or witch house music?

25. The last position in a line of hikers.
    • 1999, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon, →ISBN, page 73:

      Okay, I'll take point, Kate, you take drag.

26. (billiards) A push somewhat under the centre of the cue ball, causing it to follow the object ball a short way.
27. A device for guiding wood to the saw.
28. (historical) A mailcoach.
29. (slang) A prison sentence of three months.
    • 1869, A Merchant. Editor: Frank Henderson, Six Years in the Prisons of England

      The copper knew I did that job, and had me up on suspicion some time after, and gave me a drag (three months) over it. The next bit I did was a 'sixer' (six months), and I escaped from prison in about three weeks after I got it.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

drag (third-person singular simple present drags, present participle dragging, simple past and past participle dragged or (dialectal) drug)

Tamil fishermen dragging their boat.

Fishing by dragging a river.

1. (transitive) To pull along a surface or through a medium, sometimes with difficulty.

   Let's drag this load of wood over to the shed.

   The misbehaving child was dragged out of the classroom.

   • 2007 May, Carlos Lorch, quoting Dale Zelko, “Blast from the Past: Interview with Lt Colonel Dale Zelko, USAF”, in Nighthawks‎, volume 5, number 1, archived from the original on 4 March 2016, page 14:

     I knew where I didn't want to land so with some aggressive steering I was able to crab into the wind and land successfully on an open plowed farm field some 50 yards west of the hardball road I had seen, next to what seemed at the time to be a T intersection that led off to the east. Although I landed softly, there was a stiff 15-knot wind so I was getting drug a little bit. On my back I dug my heels in and reached up to pop both canopy releases, but on better thought decided against it, as the parachute would probably blow across the road.

2. To move onward heavily, laboriously, or slowly; to advance with weary effort; to go on lingeringly.

   Time seems to drag when you're waiting for a bus.

   • 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, , →OCLC, stanza XXXII:

     The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun.

   • a. 1732, John Gay, epistle to a Lady

     Long, open panegyric drags at best.

   • 2019 October 31, A. A. Dowd, “Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro reunite for one last gripping crime epic, The Irishman”, in AV Club‎:

     The Irishman is the director’s longest drama, but it never drags.

3. To act or proceed slowly or without enthusiasm; to be reluctant.
   • 2013 September-October, James R. Carter, “Flowers and Ribbons of Ice”, in American Scientist:

     Dragging yourself out of a warm bed in the early hours of a wintry morning to go for a hike in the woods: It’s not an easy thing for some to do, but the visual treasures that await could be well worth the effort. If the weather conditions and the local flora are just right, you might come across fleeting, delicate frozen formations sprouting from certain plant stems, literally a garden of ice.

4. To draw along (something burdensome); hence, to pass in pain or with difficulty.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     have dragged a lingering life

   • 1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System:

     You aren't going to be able to carry any more stuff. You're dragging around all that junk.

5. To serve as a clog or hindrance; to hold back.
   • 1883, William Clark Russell, Sailor’s Language:A collection of Sea-terms and Their Definitions:

     A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her.

6. (graphical user interface) To operate a pointing device by moving it with a button held down; to move, copy, etc. (an item) in this way.

   Drag the file into the window to open it.

7. (chiefly of a vehicle) To unintentionally rub or scrape on a surface.

   The car was so low to the ground that its muffler was dragging on a speed bump.

8. (soccer) To hit or kick off target.
   • 2012, David Ornstein, BBC Sport, "Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham" , November 17

     Arsenal were struggling for any sort of rhythm and Aaron Lennon dragged an effort inches wide as Tottenham pressed for a second.

9. To fish with a dragnet.
11. To search for something, as a lost object or body, by dragging something along the bottom of a body of water.
12. To break (land) by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow.

    Synonym: harrow

13. (figurative) To search exhaustively, as if with a dragnet.
    • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC:

      while I dragged my brains for such a song

14. (slang) To roast, say negative things about, or call attention to the flaws of (someone).

    Synonyms: criticize; see also Thesaurus:criticize

    You just drag him 'cause he's got more money than you.

15. (intransitive, music) To play at a slower tempo than one is supposed to or than the other musicians one is playing with, or to inadvertently gradually decrease tempo while one is playing.

    Antonym: rush

Derived terms

Related terms

• dragnet

Translations

See also

• (call attention to the flaws of): read

Etymology 2

Possibly from English drag (“to pull along a surface”) because of the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor, or from Yiddish טראָגן (trogn, “to wear”)

Noun

drag (usually uncountable, plural drags)

1. (uncountable, slang) Women's clothing worn by men for the purpose of entertainment.
   • 1870 May 30, “The Men in Women's Clothes”, in The Times, →ISSN, page 13:

     I know what "in drag" means; it is the slang for going about in women's clothes.

   • 1968, Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant, London: Cape, →OCLC, page 82:

     With the aid of informers they discovered where the great drag dances were being held and turned their attention thither. [...] They couldn't, of course, be advertised, but no publicity was needed. The network always managed to reach any one who might want to go and had half-a-crown to spare for a ticket. About three-quarters of the men who attended these dances were in drag.

   He performed in drag.

   1. (uncountable, slang, by analogy) Men's clothing worn by women for the purpose of entertainment.
2. (countable, slang) A men's party attended in women's clothing.
   • 1927, Aaron J. Rosanoff, “Sexual Psychopaths”, in Manual of Psychiatry, 6th edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., →OCLC, page 203:

     A heterosexual person cannot really break into their [homosexuals'] inner circles. They have parties or "drags" to which only homosexuals are admitted, and at these some generally appear in female dress.

   • 1942, Mary McCarthy, The Company She Keeps, New York: Harcourt Brace and World, →OCLC, page 104:

     This freedom of speech of hers was a kind of masquerade of sexuality, like the rubber breasts homosexuals put on for drags, [...]

3. (countable, slang) A drag king or drag queen.
   • 1970-1975, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure

     That Mich drag Loretta sent me about 10 pictures of her so I wouldn't think her a "decrepit old lady." But too bad—she looked like someone's biddy aunt.

   • 1978 April 8, Robert Haule, “Lge Room in San Francisco (classified advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, page 14:

     To sublet in comfy fag hsehold for Jun, July, Aug. […] Drags & Dykes welcome.

4. (uncountable, slang) Any type of clothing or costume associated with a particular occupation or subculture.
   • 1978 April 1, Eric Rogers, “The Macho Madness of the Village People”, in Gay Community News, page 11:

     As the album soared to the top of the charts, straight discos picked up on it. […] The Village People performed at 2001, the same disco that provides setting for much of Saturday Night Fever. Dressed in butch gay drag, the men in the group couldn't keep the women away.

   corporate drag

Derived terms

• (women's clothing worn by men): drag act, drag artist, drag daughter, drag king, drag queen, drag show
• (any type of clothing): lally-drags
• drab

Translations

Verb

drag (third-person singular simple present drags, present participle dragging, simple past and past participle dragged)

1. To perform as a drag queen or drag king.

References

• Flight, 1913, p. 126 attributing to Archibald Low
• Michael Quinion (2004) “Drag”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• Gard, Grad, darg, gard, grad

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

drag m (plural drags)

1. drag queen

Further reading

• “drag”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse drag, related to dra (“to pull, drag”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drɑːɡ/

Noun

drag n (definite singular draget, indefinite plural drag, definite plural draga)

1. a pull, drag (the act of pulling, dragging)

   Han tok eit drag av sigaretten.

   He took a drag from his cigarette.

2. hang (capability)

   Eg tek til å få draget på dette.

   I am starting to get the hang of this.

3. feature (e.g. facial features)

Derived terms

• vinddrag

References

• “drag” in The Bokmål Dictionary / The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English drug.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drak/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: drag

Noun

drag m inan

1. (slang) drug, recreational drug

   Synonym: narkotyk

Declension

Further reading

• drag in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic драгъ (dragŭ), from Proto-Slavic *dorgъ. Bulgarian драг (drag).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

drag m or n (feminine singular dragă, plural dragi)

1. dear

Usage notes

This word can be used as a term of address, in the same way as "dear", "honey", and "sweetie" are used in English.

Declension

Derived terms

• dragoste
• drăgălaș
• drăguț

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dorgъ, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *dargás.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drâːɡ/

Adjective

drȃg (definite drȃgī, comparative drȁžī, Cyrillic spelling дра̑г)

1. dear

Declension

Related terms

• dražestan

Slovene

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *dorgъ, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *dargás.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dráːk/

Adjective

drȃg (comparative drȃžji, superlative nȁjdrȃžji)

1. dear (loved; lovable)
2. expensive

Inflection

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• “drag”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran

Spanish

Noun

drag m (plural drags)

1. drag (entertainment form)

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish dragh, from Old Norse drag, related to the verb draga (“to pull, draw”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

drag n

1. feature, trait, characteristic
2. lure, trolling spoon
3. (chess) move
4. (figuratively) move

   Vem vet vad hans nästa drag blir

   Who knows what his next move will be

5. draft, draught (current of (usually outside) air through the interior of something, for example in the flue of a fireplace, stove, or similar)
6. (colloquial) intensity, power, as a positive attribute (of for example music, parties, or vehicles)

   Synonyms: (intensity) röj, (intensity) ös

Declension

Derived terms

• genidrag (“masterstroke”)
• karaktärsdrag (“character trait”)
• korsdrag (“cross-breeze, cross-draft”)

See also

• dra
• schvung

Verb

drag

1. imperative of draga

References

• drag in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• drag in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• drag in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• grad