draw
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɹɔː/
note: Southern England, triggers Intrusive R
ipa: [dɹoː(‿ɹ)]
ipa: /dɹɔ/
ipa: [d͡ʒɹɔ]
note: intrusive r, New England
ipa: [d͡ʒɹɔɹ]
ipa: /dɹɑ/
ipa: /ˈdɹo/
homophone: drawer (non-rhotic)
rhymes: -ɔː
Forms: form: draws
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English drauen, drawen, draȝen, dragen (“to drag, pull; to draw (out); to attract; to entice, lure; to lead; to make a drawing; to move, travel; etc.”), from Old English dragan (“to drag, draw”), from Proto-West Germanic *dragan (“to carry; to haul”), from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to carry; to pull, draw”); further etymology uncertain, often said to be from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to pull, draw”), but possibly from a non-Indo-European substrate root which is also the source of Latin trahō (“to pull, draw; etc.”). Doublet of drag and draught.
The noun is derived from Middle English drau, draue (“action of shooting with a bow”), from drauen, drawen (verb).
cognates
* Albanian dredh (“to turn, spin”)
* Danish drage
* Dutch dragen
* German tragen (“to carry”)
* Old Armenian դառնամ (daṙnam, “to turn”)
* Sanskrit ध्रजस् (dhrájas, “gliding course or motion”)
* West Frisian drage
Senses: examples: text: At the mountain’s base is the leafy suburb of Kowloon Tong. It has never been a big tourist draw, but in the decade since territorial control returned to China, this quintessentially Hong Kong neighborhood has had many more visitors — and important changes.
ref: 2007 June 24, Joyce Hor-Chung Lau, “Hong Kong Is Reshaped by Mainlanders”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Jun 2015, Asia Pacific:
text: After It, Clara became one of the top box-office draws in Hollywood, but her popularity was short lived.
ref: 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 27:
glosses: That which draws: that which attracts e.g. a crowd.
examples: text: the Wild West's quick-draw champion
glosses: The act of drawing:
The act of drawing a gun from a holster, etc.
examples: text: The draw is on Saturday.
text: Having spent more than £500,000 on players last summer, Crawley can hardly be classed as minnows but they have still punched way above their weight and this kind of performance means no-one will relish pulling them out of the hat in Sunday's draw.
ref: 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0 - 1 Crawley Town”, in BBC:
glosses: The act of drawing:
The procedure by which the result of a lottery is determined.
examples: text: This configuration offered the capacity for an exceptionally long draw – Manchu archers drew all the way back to the point of the right shoulder[…]
ref: 2016 August 25, Mike Loades, The Composite Bow, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 21:
topics: archery
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: The act of drawing:
The act of pulling back the strings in preparation of firing; the distance the strings are pulled back.
examples: text: The game ended in a draw.
glosses: The result of drawing:
The result of a contest that neither side has won.
synonyms: tie
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The result of drawing:
The result of a two-innings match in which at least one side did not complete all their innings before time ran out (as distinguished from a tie).
examples: They're going to take away our draw! (referring to e.g. disability assistance)
glosses: That which is drawn (e.g. funds from an account).
glosses: That which is drawn (e.g. funds from an account).
In a commission-based job, an advance on future (potential) commissions given to an employee by the employer.
examples: text: She looked in [to the stove] and a tight, dismayed gasp escaped her. She slammed the door shut and adjusted the draw with trembling fingers. For a moment—just a moment—she had seen her old friend Annabelle Frane in the coals.
ref: 1981, Stephen King, Do the Dead Sing?:
glosses: Draft: flow through a flue of gasses (smoke) resulting from a combustion process, possibly adjustable with a damper.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The spin or twist imparted to a ball etc. by a drawing stroke.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves intentionally to the left. See hook, slice, fade.
topics: ball-games
curling
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A shot that is intended to land gently in the house (the circular target) without knocking out other stones; cf. takeout.
examples: text: The garden, curiously enough, was a quarter of a mile from the house, and the way to it led up a shallow draw past the cattle corral.
ref: 1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia, paperback edition, Mirado Modern Classics, page 15:
topics: geography
natural-sciences
glosses: A dry stream bed that drains surface water only during periods of heavy rain or flooding.
examples: text: So my friends and I would all chip in money to get a bag of weed or a draw.
ref: 2011, Yvonne Ellis, Daughter, Arise: A Journey from Devastation to Restoration, page 54:
text: I'm twenty-something young with my priorities straight / I need to buy a booze and I need to buy a draw
ref: 2025, “Young”, performed by Little Simz:
glosses: A bag of cannabis.
examples: text: Selling draw to your mates but it's really Oxo cubes.
ref: 2003, “Soap Bar”, in The Manifesto, performed by Goldie Looking Chain:
text: Mick spoke to Simon, who was more of a drinker. He said that people who smoked draw were boring.
ref: 2017, Michael Coleman, Old Skool Rave, page 139:
glosses: Cannabis.
examples: text: The player to your left immediately raises you the minimum by clicking the raise button. This action immediately suggests that he's on a draw
ref: 2007, Ryan Wiseman, Earn $30,000 Per Month Playing Online Poker: A Step-By-Step Guide to Single, page 82:
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: A situation in which one or more players has four cards of the same suit or four out of five necessary cards for a straight and requires a further card to make their flush or straight.
topics: hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
lifestyle
pets
racing
sports
glosses: The stall from which a horse begins the race.
Synonyms: sense: the result of a contest in which neither side has won
word: stalemate
sense: dry stream bed that drains water during periods of heavy precipitation
word: wash
sense: dry stream bed that drains water during periods of heavy precipitation
word: arroyo
sense: dry stream bed that drains water during periods of heavy precipitation
word: wadi
sense: dry stream bed that drains water during periods of heavy precipitation
word: dry creek
Derived terms: blood draw
bore draw
drawcard
draw death
draw distance
drawdown
drawish
draw sheet
draw-well
god draw
inside straight draw
luck of the draw
lucky draw
majority draw
meat draw
no-score draw
open ended straight draw
prize draw
quick-draw
quickdraw
quick on the draw
redraw
rough draw
score draw
up and down straight draw
vampire draw