draftiness, draughtiness (draftines)

The condition of being drafty, or of abounding in drafts. draft-ox (draft'oks), n.; pl. draft - oxen (-ok"sn). [ME. draght - or.] An ox used for drawing loads. draft-rod (draft'rod), n. A rod extending beneath the beam of a plow from the clevis to the sheth, and taking the strain off the beam. E. H. Knight. draftsman, draughtsman (drafts'man), n.; pl. draftsmen, draughtsmen (-men). [ draught2, for draff, + -y1. Cf. draffy.] Like draff; worthle ; nasty. Chaucer. To stand whole veares, to ing and tumbling the filth that falleth from so many draughty inventions as daily swarme in our printing house. Return from Parna us (1606). drag (drag), v.; pret. and pp. dragged, ppr. dragging. [ dragging John xxi. 8. He... is not only content to drag me at his chariot wheels; but he makes a shew of me. Stilling fleet . The Church [of England] had fallen, and had, in its fall, dragged down with it a monarchy which had stood six hundred years. Macaulay , Leigh Hunt. 2. To draw along slowly or heavily, as something difficult to move: as, to drag one foot after the other.-3. To draw a grapnel through or at the bottom of, as a river or other body of water, in search of something: as, they dragged the pond. Hence-4. Figuratively, to search painfully or carefully. While I dragg'd my brains for such a song. Tennyson, Prince , iv. 5. To break, as land, by drawing a drag or harrow over it; harrow. [U. S.] To drag in or into, to introduce unnece arily or unsuitably: as, to drag in an allusion to private affairs; why is this subject dragged into the discu ion? If he must suffer, he must drag official gentlemen into an immortality most undesirable, and of which they have already some disagreeable forebodings. Emerson, John Brown. To drag anchor. See anchor1.=Syn. 1. Haul , Tug , etc. (see draw ); trail. II. in trans. 1. To be drawn along or trail on the ground; be pulled or hauled along: as, an anchor that does not hold is said to drag. 2. To move or proceed heavily, laboriously, or slowly; move on languidly or with effort. The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun. Byron, Childe Harold, iii. 32. Through the whole piece he dragged along, just half a beat behind the rest. Long fellow , Hyper i on, iv. 4. Most wearily carriage, by four horses, uncovered, and either with seats on the sides or with several transverse seats. Often improperly used in the sense of mail - coach or tally - ho. (n) In masonry, a thin plate of steel, indented on the edge, used for finishing the dre ing of soft stone which has no grit. 2. The act of dragging; a heavy motion indicative of some impediment; t: motion effected slowly and with labor: as, a heavy drag up-hill. Had a drag in his walk. Hazlitt . 3. In billiards, a blow, of the nature of a push, on the cue-ball somewhat under the center, causing it to follow the object-ball for a short distance.-4. A hunt or chase in which an artificial scent is substituted for a live fox. Sportsmen were rather disconsolate, except the happy few who hit on the expedient of running a drag between the out-line and in-line pickets for the hounds of Major Frazer. W. H. Ru ell , Diary in India, II. 357. 5. The smell of a fox on the ground: as, the drag was taken up by the hounds.-6. The retardation and prolongation of signals received from a telegraph-line or submarine cable of considerable electrostatic capacity.-7. In printing, a slight slipping or scraping of a sheet on a form of types, which produces a thickened impre ion on one side of each letter.-8. In marine eng in., the difference between the speed of a screw-ship under sail and that of the screw, when the ship outruns the latter; the difference between the propulsive effects of the different floats of a paddle-wheel. Also called slip. 9. In music: (a) In lute-playing, a portamento downward. (b) A rallentando.-10. The bottom or lower side of a molding-flask.-11. See the extract. This clay-water [water containing disintegrated kaolin rock] is led into channels called drags , where the sand and coarser flakes of mica are deposited. Encyc. Brit ., XIV. 1. 12. Naut., the difference between the draft of water forward and that aft. Qualtrough, Boat Sailer's Manual, p. 8.-13. A burglars' tool for prizing safes open; a spread. Wor cester.