drake (1)

[A contraction of ened - rake or end rake, a masc. form from A. S. ened a duck; O. Icel. andriki, Icel. and ars tegg i a drake; Sw. and =a wild duck, and drake =a male wild duck; Dan. and duck, andrika drake; Ger.ente=a duck, enter. ich a drake; Dut.eend; Lat. anas (gen it. anatis ) = a duck. The suffix is = Goth. reiks = chief, mighty, ruling. Cf. Ger. gans a goose, ganserich = a gander; Eng. bishop -ric. ( Skeat.)] 1. The male of the duck kind. "As doth the white doke after hire drake ." Chaucer: C. T. , 3.575. 2. A name given to the silver shilling of Elizabeth from the mint-mark (a martlet, mistaken for a drake), which was commonly believed to refer to Sir F. Drake, but really was the armorial cognizance of Sir R. Martin, Master of the English Mint in 1572. 3. A species of fly, used as a bait in angling; called also the Drake-fly (q. v.). "Wings made with the mil of a black drake . "- Walton : Angler, pt. 1., ch. v. drake-fly, s. The same as DRAKE (1), s., 3 (q.v.). drake-stone, s. A thin flat stone thrown so as to skim along the surface of the water. To play ducks and drakes: (1) Lit .: To play at throwing thin flat stones so that they shall skim along the surface of water. (2) Fig .: To squander in a foolish manner; to waste. *drāke (2), s. [Latin draco ; Greek drakōn =a dragon.] 1. Ord . Lang .: A dragon. "Lo, where the firy drake alofte Fleeth up in thair."- Gower , iii. 96. 2. Old Ordnance: A kind of small cannon. "Wee had six bra e drakes lay upon the deck: so that she was overtopt with waight."- A . Wilson : Autobiography . drake (3), *drauk, *drawk, *drauicke, *dravick, s. [Dut. & Mid. Eng. dravick =darnel, cockle, dra in-ing, pr . par ., a. & 8. [DRAIN, v.] A. & B. As pr . par. & particip. adj.: (See the or weeds in general.] verb.) IMG:content-0478.png:[blocks in formation] "The great plague of 1665 induced them to consider with care the defective architecture, draining, and vent i lati on of the capital."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. iii. 2. Fig.: The act of emptying or exhausting gradually.