draft

American  

[draft, drahft] / dræft, drɑft /

especially British, draught

noun

drafts plural

1. a drawing, sketch, or design.

2. a first or preliminary form of any writing, subject to revision, copying, etc.

3. the act of drawing; delineation.

4. a current of air in any enclosed space, especially in a room, chimney, or stove.

5. a current of air moving in an upward or downward direction.

6. a device for regulating the current of air in a stove, fireplace, etc.

7. an act of drawing or pulling loads.

8. something that is drawn or pulled; a haul.

9. an animal or team of animals used to pull a load.

10. the force required to pull a load.

11. the taking of supplies, forces, money, etc., from a given source.

12. a selection or drawing of persons, by lot or otherwise, from the general body of the people for military service; levy; conscription.

13. the persons so selected.

14. Sports. a selecting or drawing of new players from a choice group of amateur players by professional teams, especially a system of selecting new players so that each team in a professional league receives some of the most promising players.

15. British. a selection of persons already in military service to be sent from one post or organization to another; detachment.

16. a written order drawn by one person upon another; a writing directing the payment of money on account of the drawer; bill of exchange.

17. a drain or demand made on anything.

18. draft beer.

19. an act of drinking or inhaling.

20. something that is taken in by drinking or inhaling; a drink; dose.

21. a quantity of fish caught.

22. Nautical. the depth to which a vessel is immersed when bearing a given load.

23. Also called leave.  Metallurgy. the slight taper given to a pattern so that it may be drawn from the sand without injury to the mold.

24. Metalworking.

    1. the change in sectional area of a piece of work caused by a rolling or drawing operation.

    2. a taper on a die or punch permitting it to be withdrawn readily from the work.

25. Masonry. a line or border chiseled at the edge of a stone, to serve as a guide in leveling the surfaces.

26. Textiles.

    1. the degree of attenuation produced in fibers during yarn processing, expressed either by the ratio of the weight of raw fiber to the weight of processed fiber, or by the ratio between the varying surface speeds of the rollers on the carding machine.

    2. the act of attenuating the fibers.

27. an allowance granted to a buyer for waste of goods sold by weight.

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verb (used with object)

drafts, present (3rd person singular) drafted, past participle, past drafting present participle

1. to draw the outlines or plan of; sketch.

2. to draw up in written form; compose.

3. to draw or pull.

4. to take or select by draft, especially for military service.

5. Masonry. to cut a draft on.

verb (used without object)

drafts, present (3rd person singular) drafted, past participle, past drafting present participle

1. to do mechanical drawing; work as a draftsman.

2. (in a race) to drive or ride close behind another car or bicycle so as to benefit from the reduction in air pressure created behind it.

adjective

1. used or suited for drawing loads.

   These oxen are fine draft animals.

2. drawn or available to be drawn from a cask rather than served from a sealed bottle.

   draft ale.

3. being a tentative or preliminary outline, version, design, or sketch.

idioms

1. on draft, available to be drawn from a cask rather than from a sealed bottle.

   imported beer on draft.

draft British  

/ drɑːft /

noun

1. a plan, sketch, or drawing of something

2. a preliminary outline of a book, speech, etc

3. another word for bill of exchange

4. a demand or drain on something

5. the divergent duct leading from a water turbine to its tailrace

6. selection for compulsory military service

7. detachment of military personnel from one unit to another

8. commerce an allowance on merchandise sold by weight

9. a line or narrow border that is chiselled on the surface of a stone to serve as a guide for levelling it

10. a group of livestock separated from the rest of the herd or flock

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verb

1. to draw up an outline or sketch for something

   to draft a speech

2. to prepare a plan or design of

3. to detach (military personnel) from one unit to another

4. to select for compulsory military service

5. to chisel a draft on (stone, etc)

6. 1. to select (cattle or sheep) from a herd or flock

   2. to select (farm stock) for sale

noun

1. the usual US spelling of draught draught draught draught draught draught draught draught draught

draft ¹ Cultural  

1. A preliminary version of a book, speech, essay, or outline.

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draft ² Cultural  

1. A system for selecting young men for compulsory military service, administered in the United States by the Selective Service System. At present the United States relies on a volunteer military and does not have a draft, though young men are required by law to register with the Selective Service. (See also conscientious objector and draft dodger.)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• drafter
  noun
• predraft
  noun
• redraft
  verb (used with object)
• antidraft
  adjective
• draftable
  adjective
• undraftable
  adjective
• undrafted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• drafts
  plural

Participles

• drafting
  present
• drafted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• draft
  simple
• drafts
  simple
• have drafted
  perfect
• has drafted
  perfect
• am drafting
  progressive
• are drafting
  progressive
• is drafting
  progressive
• have been drafting
  perfect progressive
• has been drafting
  perfect progressive

Past

• drafted
  simple
• had drafted
  perfect
• was drafting
  progressive
• were drafting
  progressive
• had been drafting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will draft
  simple
• will have drafted
  perfect
• will be drafting
  progressive
• will have been drafting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of draft

Later spelling of draught (since 16th century)

Explanation

Draft means to draw, both in the sense of sketching an image onto paper, but also in terms of pulling — a draft horse draws a wagon, a draft of air is drawn into your lungs when you take a breath. A cold draft is a current of cold air being drawn indoors. To draft someone into the army means to draw them into service, or make them serve. When you are drafting, or writing, a draft of a paper on the military draft in the U.S., you want to let your ideas flow freely. Then, in your next draft, you can work on filling in holes and edit the language down to what you really want to say.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

draft drafts drafted drafting

Bennett has never taken a regular-season snap for the Rams, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2023 draft after he led Georgia to two national titles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

In one conversation from April, a user prompted Claude to draft an unpublished blog post about cloud security involving details of a corporate project.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

ChatGPT helps her draft pickup lines for dating apps and icebreakers for parties.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

He said he had received a draft of the law, which they wanted to introduce soon in parliament.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

Even so, some Americans opposed the war and the draft.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman

A companion app provides AI summaries, action items and drafts of follow-up emails.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

NBA mock drafts projected Cameron Carr getting selected somewhere between 15 and 20 in the first round on Tuesday night.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2026

The journal does not have a policy about sponsors providing editorial feedback on drafts.

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026

AI’s march across Wall Street, meanwhile, is accelerating, with banks using it to speed up underwriting for commercial loans, generate drafts of regulatory filings and review coding for back-end technology.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

In the next week the first drafts of our Nature paper got handed out and two were sent down to London for comments from Adaurice and Rosy.

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson

Huge forest fires in south-west France and central Spain have displaced more than 220,000 people, with the French military drafted in to help and the Spanish government declaring a national emergency.

From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026

After more than a decade of marriage, this is an excellent time to sit down together with an estate-planning attorney and, if necessary, the attorney who drafted your prenup.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Seifried drafted a law that passed in April requiring 40 minutes of daily recess in kindergarten through fifth grade, up from 20 minutes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

When guard Collin Sexton, another new Laker, was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018, James left and signed with the Lakers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

The previous evening he had drafted a personal statement, which he enclosed with his last will and testament, declaring that he had sincerely hoped to avoid the interview.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Private-practice attorney Nick Owens and Austin Baurichter, a practicing lawyer and Karley’s husband, began drafting the ConserveOhio petition in March to fight back against local plans to build large-scale data centers across the region.

From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026

They also work to flag needed updates to a person’s estate plan, but they stop short of giving legal advice or drafting documents.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026

Nicole Diaz, associate general counsel at OpenAI, has been having Codex do the work a junior associate otherwise would, including analyzing disclosures from new employees and drafting replies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

This drafting quirk, far more than just a fun fact for grammar nerds or English teachers nationwide, is seen as proof that a narrow reading of the spending clause is most appropriate.

From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026

Kether, artist and designer of catapults and siege engines, needed only a drafting table brought into his room at the guildhall.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Related Words

• design
• devise
• draw up
• forge
• outline
• prepare