drain
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɹeɪn/
note: see dreen
ipa: /dɹiːn/
rhymes: -eɪn
Forms: form: drains
form: draining
form: drained
form: drained
form: drein
form: drein
form: dreen
Etymology: From Middle English dreinen, from Old English drēahnian (“to drain, strain, filter”), from Proto-Germanic *drauhnōną (“to strain, sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, parched”). Akin to Old English drūgian (“to dry up”), Old English drūgaþ (“dryness, drought”), Old English drȳġe (“dry”). More at dry.
Senses: examples: text: The clogged sink drained slowly.
text: Knock knock. / Who’s there? / Dwayne. / Dwayne who? / Drain the bathtub, I’m drowning.
glosses: To lose liquid.
examples: text: The water of low ground drains off.
glosses: To flow gradually.
examples: text: Please drain the sink. It’s full of dirty water.
synonyms: bleed
glosses: To cause liquid to flow out of.
examples: text: They had to drain the swampy land before the parking lot could be built.
glosses: To convert a perennially wet place into a dry one.
examples: text: The stress of this job is really draining me.
glosses: To deplete of energy or resources.
examples: text: Fountains drain the water from the ground adjacent.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
text: At leaſt, I'm ſure I can fiſh it out of her. She's the very Sluce to her Lady's Secrets;—'Tis but ſetting her Mill agoing, and I can drein her of 'em all.
ref: 1693, Will[iam] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], London: […] Peter Buck, […], →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 45:
text: But it was not alone that he drained their treasure and hampered their industry.
ref: 1856, John Lothrop Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to exhaust.
examples: text: Salt water, drained through twenty vessels of earth, hath become fresh.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
glosses: To filter.
examples: text: When a ball finally drains, it's gulped down by a giant gator beneath the set of flippers.
ref: 1990, Steven A. Schwartz, Compute's Nintendo Secrets:
qualifier: pinball
glosses: To fall off the bottom of the playfield.
examples: text: But when I strove my flame to tell, / Says she, 'Come, stow that patter, / If you're a cove wot likes a gal, / Vy don't you stand some gatter?' / In course I instantly complied— / Two brimming quarts of porter, / With sev'ral goes of gin beside, / Drain'd Bet the Coaley's daughter.
ref: Bet the Coaley's Daughter (traditional song)
glosses: To drink.
topics: ball-games
basketball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To make a shot.
Derived terms: word: drainable
word: drainage
word: drain away
word: drainback
word: drainee
word: draining
word: drain out
word: drain the dragon
word: drain the lizard
word: drain the main vein
word: drain the python
word: drain the snake
word: drain the swamp
word: overdrain
word: redrain
word: subdrain
word: underdrain
word: undrain