- past participle of draw.
drawn
Americanverb
adjective
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tense; haggard.
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eviscerated, as a fowl.
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Glassmaking.
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of or relating to the stem of a drinking glass that has been formed by stretching from a small mass of molten metal left at the base of the bowl of the vessel.
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of or relating to glass that is drawn over a series of rollers as it comes from the furnace.
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adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of drawn
First recorded in 1150–1200, for the adjective
Explanation
Drawn describes the look of someone who is tired, overworked, or ill. People will worry about you if your face looks drawn every morning because you stay up so late doing homework. The adjective drawn comes from the Old English verb dragan, which means to pull or to drag. Dragan is also the root for the artistic sense of the verb "draw," but drawn doesn't describe art. It can mean pulled closed, however. The drawn drapes keep your room so dark that it's always dark as night in there, which is good for sleeping, but bad when you have to get up early for school.
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.
Local farmers have also poured in to help battle the blaze, with a ballet of tractors pulling in tankers of water drawn from a nearby lake.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
More recently, he was drawn into a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal surrounding failed Banco Master after acknowledging that he sought millions from its owner to finance a movie about his father.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
The Arsenal graduate is a familiar name that some managers might be drawn to, having done well at Middlesborough in 2022-23, but he will struggle for minutes.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Last week, Lineage said it expected to spend $80 million to $100 million on the cleanup, including steps to mitigate the smell and the vermin drawn to the site and surrounding neighborhoods.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
She has a pale, drawn expression on her face.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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.
