a drag

Idioms

A tedious experience, a bore, as in After several thousand times, signing your autograph can be a drag. This seemingly modern term was army slang during the Civil War. The allusion probably is to drag as something that impedes progress. [Colloquial; mid-1800s]

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.

See Examples For:

a drag

“Dolly has shaped much of my life as a drag artist,” Bandit wrote on Instagram, calling her a “queen who has changed the world with her love, artistry, and GLAM! my diva forever.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

"It's a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I'd be a drag queen."

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

In 2023, when Texas politicians sought to criminalize many drag performances, Parton backed a drag queen fighting the legislation in a way that was uniquely Dolly.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

Anything added on top of that looked like a drag on returns.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

I picked up the swoosh of a drag, like a bag or maybe a body.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023