draft
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɹɑːft/
rhymes: -ɑːft
ipa: /dɹæft/
rhymes: -æft
Forms: form: drafts
form: draught
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”), equivalent to draw + -t. Cognate with Dutch dracht, German Tracht, Icelandic dráttur.
Senses: glosses: A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
glosses: The draw through a flue of gasses or smoke resulting from a combustion process.
glosses: An act of drinking.
examples: text: to drink at a draft
text: She took a deep draft from the bottle of water.
synonyms: swig
glosses: The quantity of liquid (such as water, alcohol, or medicine) drunk in one swallow.
glosses: A dose (of medicine, alcohol, etc.).
examples: text: From 1767 to 1774 no pale wine was bottled but for immediate use; only draft wine of all kinds was used in the principal taverns, and it was often very bad, not from tricks of the vintners, but from bad management.
ref: 1863, Thomas George Shaw, Wine, the Vine, and the Cellar, page 152:
text: Another positive trend is the increase of quality in draft cider options. Draft cider has often been, and sometimes still is, considered an inferior product by cider traditionalists, who believe a true cider should come in a bottle or[…]
ref: 2015 September 14, Jeff Smith, Craft Cider: How to Turn Apples into Alcohol, The Countryman Press, →ISBN:
glosses: Liquid, especially beer or other alcohol, drawn from a cask or keg rather than a bottle or can.
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: 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.
examples: text: I have to revise the first draft of my term paper.
text: His first drafts were better than most authors' final products.
text: Dr Richard Beeching's handwritten draft of his report survives in the National Archives.
ref: 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43:
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: A version of a written work (such as a book or paper) or drawing.
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: An unsent e-mail.
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: A preliminary sketch or outline for a plan.
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: An order for money to be paid; the document that states it: a cheque, note, bond, bill of exchange, money order, or IOU.
examples: text: He left the country to avoid the draft.
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: Conscription; the system of forcing people to serve in the military.
raw_tags: with the
examples: text: With these counsels, and many others equally valuable, did Papa Wick fortify Bobby ere that last awful night at Portsmouth when the Officers' Quarters held more inmates than were provided for by the Regulations, and the liberty-men of the ships fell foul of the drafts for India, and the battle raged from the Dockyard Gates even to the slums of Longport, while the drabs of Fratton came down and scratched the faces of the Queen's Officers.
ref: 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 135:
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: A person who has been drafted; a conscript or draftee.
topics: government
politics
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: A system of forcing or convincing people to take an elected position.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: A system of assigning rookie players to professional sports teams.
topics: games
gaming
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: A style of play in collectible card games, where players select from a shared pool of cards.
examples: text: As an instance: amongst a draft of young hounds from Earl F itzwilliam's was one, of whom Will Deane, his huntsman, made this remark in his letter, 'that he could not guess at Lord Foley's dislike to the hound called Glider, then sent, which was of the best blood in the country, being got by Mr. Meynell's Glider out of Lord Fitzwilliam's Blossom, and was moreover the most promising young hound he had ever entered;...
ref: 1841, Alexander Walker, Intermarriage, page 325:
text: These drafts left between the 17th March and 28th April. After this there was no regular system of artillery drafts. A draft of 80 was detailed to take charge of horses on board ship as all cavalry drafts were for the time exhausted, and this draft sailed on the 30th June.
ref: 1904, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1 - Volume 42, page 83:
text: The Complaint about the Beef lately furnished for the use of the Troops &c at Parramatta, is not without foundation; when I commenced supplying the several Stations with animal food in January last, — a Draft of very fat Oxen was brought from Wellington for that purpose, — that draft has met the consumption of several Stations until now. — the Cattle lately remaining fell very much off in condition, though I certainly consider they were not inferior to a great deal of Beef, I have seen taken from Contractors.
ref: 1982, John Maxwell, Brian Edmund Lloyd, Bertha Mac Smith, Letters of John Maxwell, Superintendent of Government Stock, page 206:
text: An earlier draft of horses for the 4th Light Dragoons, however,was very different.
ref: 1993, Lord Anglesey, A History of the British Cavalry 1816-1919: Volume 2: 1851-1871:
text: The Light Brigade have got a draft of about 250 horses from England, and we expect ours shortly.
ref: 2009, Philip Warner, A Cavalryman in the Crimea:
qualifier: Universal spelling
glosses: A quantity that is requisitioned or drawn out from a larger population.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: The pulling force (tension) on couplers and draft gear during a slack (stretched) condition.
glosses: The bevel given to the pattern for a casting, so that it can be drawn from the sand without damaging the mould.
examples: text: using oxen for draft
text: shot forth an arrow with a mighty draft
text: In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in the U.S., "strong" ploughs requiring the draft of four and sometimes six oxen were frequently used for breaking land which had previously lain fallow for several years.
ref: 1988, Kenneth W. Russell, Afther Eden, page 39:
glosses: The action or an act (especially of a beast of burden or vehicle) of pulling something along or back.
glosses: The act of drawing in a net for fish.
examples: text: He cast his net, which brought him a very great draft.
glosses: That which is drawn in; a catch; a haul.
examples: text: Crossing several ridges & hollows & two small drafts of water.
ref: 1801, Surveys 43, page 428, quoted in 1940, George Davis McJimsey, Topographic Terms in Virginia, page 63
text: Hollows were tributary to a cove or another type of sizable valley threaded by a creek or, in Pennsylvania, a “run,” and in Virginia, a “draft.”
ref: 2003, John Alexander Williams, Appalachia: A History, page 113:
glosses: A small stream or tributary.
examples: text: [page 24:] About one quarter of a mile up the draft, the same blue-gray limestone is opened in a quarry on the Graham and Robinson farm, […]
[page 31:] Up along a narrow draft heading south-east from the creek at Southern's place, a series of small pits and trenches have been dug close to the ridge […] above the level of the creek.
ref: 1887, Andrew Smith McCreath, Edward Vincent D'Invilliers, The New River-Cripple Creek Mineral Region of Virginia:
text: Then came the pleasant toil up and down the ridges and drafts of the Knob.
ref: 1894, Charles D Lanier, “Sawney's Deer-Lick”, in Scribner's Magazine, page 101:
text: Now you have left the dividing "backbone", and climb up and down a never-ending succession of ridges and "drafts," as the ravines are called. […] a searching reconnoitre of the next long draft opened to view.
ref: 1894, Charles D. Lanier, “On the Trail of the Wild Turkey”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 89, number 534, page 883:
glosses: A ravine or narrow valley, especially one through which a stream (at least intermittently) flows.
Derived terms: air draft
antidraft
at a draft
backdraft
bank draft
banker's draft
beast of draft
deep draft
demand draft
downdraft
draftage
draft animal
draft-bar
draft board
draft card
draft-dodge
draft dodger
draft evader
draft excluder
draft gear
draft horse
drafthouse
draft house
draftless
draft lottery
draftman
draftmate
draftnik
draftproof
draft-quality
draftsman
draft snake
draftsperson
draft stop
draftswoman
draftwoman
drafty
forced draft
foredraft
indraft
misdraft
outdraft
overdraft
photodraft
postdraft
predraft
redraft
sight draft
snake draft
through draft
through-draft
time draft
updraft