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

“Persistent uncertainty continued to be a drag on low- and moderate-income consumers and the organizations that serve them,” the Chicago Fed said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

Considine was given a drag outfit to wear on the Saturday of that weekend.

From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026

Chief Financial Officer Robin Washington said on the earnings call that the actual quarterly growth experienced a drag from “softness” in Tableau, a visual data analytics platform.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

None of this necessarily means that SpaceX will be a drag on the market.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026

Brian hated the job of treasurer because it was such a drag but mostly because it brought him into personal contact with Brother Leon.

From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier

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