draw up

English

Verb

draw up (third-person singular simple present draws up, present participle drawing up, simple past drew up, past participle drawn up)

1. (transitive) To compose (a document), especially following a standard form; prepare a plan.

   I asked my lawyer to draw up a new will.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate , New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, , →OCLC:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

   • 2021 November 17, Mark Rand, “Reconnecting rail freight to S&C quarries”, in RAIL, number 944, page 55:

     Plans were drawn up and things looked promising for a physical connection to be made during a line possession in October 2019.

2. (transitive) To arrange in order or formation.

   Sergeant, please draw the men up in ranks of three.

3. (transitive) To cause to come to a halt.

   Draw up the carriage just around the corner!

4. (intransitive) To come to a halt.

   The tractor drew up alongside the haystack.

   • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:

     As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass

   • 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:

     The tide was out, and we drew up amid the strong bracing smell of seaweed, with gulls screeching, wheeling around, and gliding on the wind.

   • 1959 June, J. F. Oxley, D. R. Smith, “The Nottingham-Kettering line of the L.M.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 320:

     Melton Mowbray station, ½ mile east of the junction, is an unimposing and cramped structure with up and down platforms only and express trains which call there have to draw up twice because of the short platform lengths.

5. To withdraw upwards.
   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     Ere long a bell tinkled, and the curtain drew up. Within the arch, the bulky figure of Sir George Lynn, whom Mr. Rochester had likewise chosen, was seen enveloped in a white sheet.

Synonyms

• (to compose a document): make out
• (to arrange in order or formation): formate (aircraft)
• (to cause to come to a halt): freeze, halt; See also Thesaurus:immobilize
• (to come to a halt): brake, desist, halt; See also Thesaurus:stop
• (to withdraw upwards): retract

Translations

Anagrams

• updraw, upward