drag
Americanverb (used with object)
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to draw with force, effort, or difficulty; pull heavily or slowly along; haul; trail.
They dragged the carpet out of the house.
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to search with a drag, grapnel, or the like.
They dragged the lake for the body of the missing man.
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to level and smooth (land) with a drag or harrow.
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to introduce; inject; insert.
He drags his honorary degree into every discussion.
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to protract (something) or pass (time) tediously or painfully (often followed by out oron ).
They dragged the discussion out for three hours.
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to pull (a graphical image) from one place to another on a computer display screen.
verb (used without object)
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to be drawn or hauled along.
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to trail on the ground.
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to move heavily or with effort.
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to proceed or pass with tedious slowness.
The parade dragged by endlessly.
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to feel listless or apathetic; move listlessly or apathetically (often followed byaround ).
This heat wave has everyone dragging around.
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to lag behind.
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to use a drag or grapnel; dredge.
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to take part in a drag race.
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to take a puff.
to drag on a cigarette.
noun
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something that retards progress.
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Aeronautics. the aerodynamic force exerted on an airfoil, airplane, or other aerodynamic body that tends to reduce its forward motion.
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an act of dragging.
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slow, laborious movement or procedure; retardation.
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Slang. someone or something tedious; a bore.
It's a drag having to read this old novel.
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a puff or inhalation on a cigarette, pipe, etc.
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clothing, makeup, and accessories typically associated with one gender when worn by a person of a different gender.
We went to a Mardi Gras ball where many of the dancers were in drag.
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a performance art form that is especially associated with LGBTQ+ communities and is characterized by a stylized and exaggerated interpretation of femininity, or sometimes masculinity, that plays with stereotypical gender themes.
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clothing characteristic of a particular occupation or milieu.
Two guests showed up in gangster drag.
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Informal. a street or thoroughfare, especially a main street of a town or city.
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a drag race.
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Nautical.
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a designed increase of draft toward the stern of a vessel.
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resistance to the movement of a hull through the water.
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any of a number of weights dragged cumulatively by a vessel sliding down ways to check its speed.
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any object dragged in the water, as a sea anchor.
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any device for dragging the bottom of a body of water to recover or detect objects.
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Angling.
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a brake on a fishing reel.
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the sideways pull on a fishline, as caused by a crosscurrent.
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Agriculture. a heavy wooden or steel frame drawn over the ground to smooth it.
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a stout sledge or sled.
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a four-horse sporting and passenger coach with seats inside and on top.
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a metal shoe to receive a wheel of heavy wagons and serve as a brake on steep grades.
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Hunting.
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the scent left by a fox or other animal.
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something, as aniseed, dragged over the ground to leave an artificial scent.
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Also called drag hunt. a hunt, especially a fox hunt, in which the hounds follow an artificial scent.
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Also called comb. Masonry. a steel plate with a serrated edge for dressing a stone surface.
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Metallurgy. the lower part of a flask.
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Slang. influence.
He claims he has drag with his senator.
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Older Slang. a girl or woman that one takes on a date.
adjective
idioms
verb
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to pull or be pulled with force, esp along the ground or other surface
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(tr; often foll by away or from) to persuade to come away (from something attractive or interesting)
he couldn't drag himself away from the shop
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to trail or cause to trail on the ground
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(tr) to move (oneself, one's feet, etc) with effort or difficulty
he drags himself out of bed at dawn
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to linger behind
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to prolong or be prolonged tediously or unnecessarily
his talk dragged on for hours
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to pass (time) in discomfort, poverty, unhappiness, etc
he dragged out his few remaining years
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to search (the bed of a river, canal, etc) with a dragnet or hook
they dragged the river for the body
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(tr foll by out or from) to crush (clods) or level (a soil surface) by use of a drag
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(of hounds) to follow (a fox or its trail) to the place where it has been lying
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slang (intr) to draw (on a cigarette, pipe, etc)
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computing to move (data) from one place to another on the screen by manipulating a mouse with its button held down
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(of a vessel) to move away from its mooring because the anchor has failed to hold
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informal to act with deliberate slowness
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to disgrace or defame someone
noun
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the act of dragging or the state of being dragged
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an implement, such as a dragnet, dredge, etc, used for dragging
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Also called: drag harrow. a type of harrow consisting of heavy beams, often with spikes inserted, used to crush clods, level soil, or prepare seedbeds
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a sporting coach with seats inside and out, usually drawn by four horses
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a braking or retarding device, such as a metal piece fitted to the underside of the wheel of a horse-drawn vehicle
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a person or thing that slows up progress
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slow progress or movement
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aeronautics the resistance to the motion of a body passing through a fluid, esp through air: applied to an aircraft in flight, it is the component of the resultant aerodynamic force measured parallel to the direction of air flow
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the trail of scent left by a fox or other animal hunted with hounds
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an artificial trail of a strong-smelling substance, sometimes including aniseed, drawn over the ground for hounds to follow
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See drag hunt
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angling unnatural movement imparted to a fly, esp a dry fly, by tension on the angler's line
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informal a person or thing that is very tedious; bore
exams are a drag
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slang a car
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short for drag race
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slang
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women's clothes worn by a man, usually by a transvestite (esp in the phrase in drag )
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( as modifier )
a drag club
drag show
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clothes collectively
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informal a draw on a cigarette, pipe, etc
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slang influence or persuasive power
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slang a street or road
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A force acting on a moving body, opposite in direction to the movement of the body, caused by the interaction of the body and the medium it moves through. The strength of drag usually depends on the velocity of the body.
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◆ Drag caused by buildup of pressure in front of the moving body and a decrease in pressure behind the body is called pressure drag. It is an important factor in the design of aerodynamically efficient shapes for cars and airplanes.
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◆ Drag caused by the viscosity of the medium as the molecules along the body's surface move through it is called skin drag or skin friction. It is an important factor in the design of efficient surface materials for cars, airplanes, boat hulls, skis, and swimsuits.
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Compare lift See Note at aerodynamics
Related Words
See draw.
Other Word Forms
- outdrag verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of drag
First recorded in 1350–1400; 1920–25 drag for def. 20; Middle English; both noun and verb probably from Middle Low German dragge “grapnel,” draggen “to dredge,” derivative of drag- draw; drag defs. 22, 24, 38 are obscurely related to other senses and perhaps a distinct word of independent origin
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Concerns about Nvidia have dragged the stock’s valuation near historically low levels — and that suggests big gains could be in store, according to a BofA analyst.
From MarketWatch
An Indian fan breached security and raced to the pitch to touch Kohli's feet before he was dragged away.
From Barron's
Weakness in the real estate and residential services sectors helped drag the figure down 0.6 percentage points from October.
From Barron's
He was succeeded by Starmer, who dragged the party back to the centre and returned it to power in July 2024 after 14 years in opposition.
From Barron's
The suit has already dragged out for over two years as MediaTek has pushed for dismissal.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
