drag
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: drăg
ipa: /dɹæɡ/
rhymes: -æɡ
Forms: form: drags
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: When designing cars, manufacturers have to take drag into consideration.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: Resistance of a fluid to something moving through it.
examples: text: A high thrust-to-weight ratio helps a rocket to overcome the effects of gravity drag.
qualifier: by analogy with above
glosses: Any force acting in opposition to the motion of an object.
coordinate_terms: cope#English:_major_part_of_a_mold
glosses: The bottom part of a sand casting mold.
glosses: A device dragged along the bottom of a body of water in search of something, e.g. a dead body, or in fishing.
examples: text: "He told me that he was certain that Coates shot at him. We threw out a drag and landed Coates within an hour."
ref: 1920 June 23, The Electrical Experimenter, New York, page 151, column 3:
glosses: A systematic search for someone over a wide area, especially by the authorities; a dragnet.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A double drum-stroke played at twice the speed of the context in which it is placed.
examples: text: He got high after just one drag of the joint.
text: Give me a drag on that roach!
synonyms: lug
pull
glosses: A puff on a cigarette or joint.
examples: text: Travelling to work in the rush hour is a real drag.
text: December 24, 1865, James David Forbes, letter to Dr. Symonds
My lectures […] were only a pleasure to me, and no drag.
text: 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
ref: 1965, Bob Dylan, “Positively 4th Street”:
glosses: Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating, or disappointing; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment.
examples: text: I’m down here readin’ for my little go during the Long, only I come over from Baymouth pretty often in my drag…
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 10, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
text: Alcee Arobin and Mrs. Highcamp called for her one bright afternoon in Arobin's drag.
ref: 1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening:
glosses: A long open horse-drawn carriage with transverse or side seats.
examples: text: the main drag
text: a back drag
glosses: A street.
examples: text: to run a drag
glosses: The scent-path left by dragging a fox, or some other substance such as aniseed, for training hounds to follow scents.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
snooker
sports
glosses: A large amount of backspin on the cue ball, causing the cue ball to slow down.
glosses: A heavy harrow for breaking up ground.
examples: text: a stone drag
glosses: A kind of sledge for conveying heavy objects; also, a kind of low car or handcart.
topics: engineering
metallurgy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: The bottom part of a flask or mould, the upper part being the cope.
topics: business
construction
manufacturing
masonry
glosses: A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: 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.
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1959 October, “South of Doncaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 470, photo caption:
glosses: A pulled load.
glosses: A skid or shoe for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel.
examples: text: Had a drag in his walk.
ref: c. 1800, William Hazlitt, My First Acquaintance with Poets:
glosses: Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged.
examples: text: “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.
ref: 2010 March 8, Scott Wright, quoting Heather Marlatt, “Scene and heard: Drag”, in The Guardian:
text: 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.
ref: 2010 September 29, Paul Lester, “New band of the day - No 877: oOoOO”, in The Guardian:
text: 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.
ref: 2010 December 2, Paul Lester, “New band of the day – No 922: Balam Acab”, in The Guardian:
text: In your own words, what is drag or witch house music?
ref: 2011 January 24, David Wicik, “Exorcising the Ghost: oOoOO breaks down the buzz about “drag””, in Newcity:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Witch house music.
examples: text: Okay, I'll take point, Kate, you take drag.
ref: 1999, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon, →ISBN, page 73:
glosses: The last position in a line of hikers.
topics: ball-games
billiards
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A push somewhat under the centre of the cue ball, causing it to follow the object ball a short way.
glosses: A device for guiding wood to the saw.
glosses: A mailcoach.
examples: text: The sodger who done it was quodded, but only for a drag, and he swore to God as how he’d do for me the next time as he comed across me.
ref: 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861:
text: 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.
glosses: A prison sentence of three months.
Derived terms: antidrag
cash drag
cash-drag
danna-drag
dragadiddle
dragbar
drag bit
drag boat
drag bolt
dragbox
drag bunt
drag chain
drag-chain
drag chute
drag coefficient
dragfooted
draggy
drag handle
draghound
drag hunt
dragless
draglift
draglink
dragman
drag parachute
drag race
drag racer
drag racing
drag racing boat
dragrope
dragsman
dragstrip
dragway
fiscal drag
gravity drag
lift-to-drag ratio
main drag
microdrag
parasitic drag
Poynting-Robertson drag
sand drag
toe drag
underdrag
wave drag