drag Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the phenomenon of resistance to motion through a fluid
    retarding force.
  2. noun something that slows or delays progress
    • taxation is a drag on the economy
    • too many laws are a drag on the use of new land
  3. noun something tedious and boring
    • peeling potatoes is a drag
  4. noun clothing that is conventionally worn by the opposite sex (especially women's clothing when worn by a man)
    • he went to the party dressed in drag
    • the waitresses looked like missionaries in drag
  5. noun a slow inhalation (as of tobacco smoke)
    puff; pull.
    • he took a puff on his pipe
    • he took a drag on his cigarette and expelled the smoke slowly
  6. noun the act of dragging (pulling with force)
    • the drag up the hill exhausted him
  7. verb pull, as against a resistance
    • He dragged the big suitcase behind him
    • These worries were dragging at him
  8. verb draw slowly or heavily
    haul; hale; cart.
    • haul stones
    • haul nets
  9. verb force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action
    embroil; sweep; drag in; sweep up; tangle.
    • They were swept up by the events
    • don't drag me into this business
  10. verb move slowly and as if with great effort
  11. verb to lag or linger behind
    drop behind; hang back; trail; get behind; drop back.
    • But in so many other areas we still are dragging
  12. verb suck in or take (air)
    puff; draw.
    • draw a deep breath
    • draw on a cigarette
  13. verb use a computer mouse to move icons on the screen and select commands from a menu
    • drag this icon to the lower right hand corner of the screen
  14. verb walk without lifting the feet
    scuff.
  15. verb search (as the bottom of a body of water) for something valuable or lost
    dredge.
  16. verb persuade to come away from something attractive or interesting
    • He dragged me away from the television set
  17. verb proceed for an extended period of time
    drag on; drag out.
    • The speech dragged on for two hours

WordNet

Drag noun
Etymology
See 3d Dredge.
Definitions
  1. A confection; a comfit; a drug. Obs. Chaucer.
Drag transitive verb
Etymology
OE. draggen; akin to Sw. dragga to search with a grapnel, fr. dragg grapnel, fr. draga to draw, the same word as E. draw. See Draw.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dragged ; present participle & verbal noun Dragging
Definitions
  1. To draw slowly or heavily onward; to pull along the ground by main force; to haul; to trail; -- applied to drawing heavy or resisting bodies or those inapt for drawing, with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing.
    Dragged by the cords which through his feet were thrust. Denham.
    The grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down. Tennyson.
    A needless Alexandrine ends the song That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Pope.
  2. To break, as land, by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow; to draw a drag along the bottom of, as a stream or other water; hence, to search, as by means of a drag.
    Then while I dragged my brains for such a song. Tennyson.
  3. To draw along, as something burdensome; hence, to pass in pain or with difficulty.
    Have dragged a lingering life. Dryden.
    Syn. -- See Draw.
Drag intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be drawn along, as a rope or dress, on the ground; to trail; to be moved onward along the ground, or along the bottom of the sea, as an anchor that does not hold.
  2. To move onward heavily, laboriously, or slowly; to advance with weary effort; to go on lingeringly.
    The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun. Byron.
    Long, open panegyric drags at best. Gay.
  3. To serve as a clog or hindrance; to hold back.
    A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her. Russell.
  4. To fish with a dragnet.
Drag noun
Etymology
See Drag, v. t., and cf. Dray a cart, and 1st Dredge.
Definitions
  1. The act of dragging; anything which is dragged.
  2. A net, or an apparatus, to be drawn along the bottom under water, as in fishing, searching for drowned persons, etc.
  3. A kind of sledge for conveying heavy bodies; also, a kind of low car or handcart; as, a stone drag.
  4. A heavy coach with seats on top; also, a heavy carriage. Collog. Thackeray.
  5. A heavy harrow, for breaking up ground.
  6. (a) Anything towed in the water to retard a ship's progress, or to keep her head up to the wind; esp., a canvas bag with a hooped mouth, so used. See Drag sail (below). (b) Also, a skid or shoe, for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel. (c) Hence, anything that retards; a clog; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment.
    My lectures were only a pleasure to me, and no drag. J. D. Forbes.
  7. Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged. "Had a drag in his walk." Hazlitt.
  8. (Founding) The bottom part of a flask or mold, the upper part being the cope.
  9. (Masonry) A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.
  10. (Marine Engin.) The difference between the speed of a screw steamer under sail and that of the screw when the ship outruns the screw; or between the propulsive effects of the different floats of a paddle wheel. See Citation under Drag, v. i., 3.

Webster 1913