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 a taper on a die or punch permitting it to be withdrawn readily from the work.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

---

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

---

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.

---

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.)

---

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

Mr. Winfield was the fourth-overall pick in the MLB draft, selected by the San Diego Padres in 1973.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

All of a sudden, the player who couldn’t keep his emails out of the junk folder has become the quarterback NFL teams are lining up to draft, as a projected first-round pick in April.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Four games into his 14th NFL season — all spent with the team that selected him with the fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft — Johnson has decided that he’s done.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

From a draft script shared by The Bulwark:

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026

While FBI agents raced to the home of Herbie Haupt's uncle, Herbie had already gone to the draft board and registered, and was in a taxi on his way to the FBI office in Chicago.

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

There were several drafts of the decree ahead of Thursday's council of ministers meeting, however the core details were clear.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Go do this 10-minute play workshop, then do 90 drafts of it, and then we’ll do a reading.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Wisse and fellow head writer Michele Loud review those drafts, picking five clues for the “Jeopardy!” game board and reserving two as backups.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

Picked near the top of their respective drafts, both men crafted passable but underwhelming careers in the league.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026

“Leaks and drafts aren’t priorities, I’m afraid,” Rhonda said.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

The party was at a paintball venue, so the assistant drafted and sent a text to each parent with a release form to sign.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Bob Fontaine Jr. was a scout for six MLB teams and drafted Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith, Tony Gwynn and Randy Johnson, in addition to Jim Abbott and many other Angels stars.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

Those drafted must compete for roster spots with top foreign talent, including Dominican teens who come out of the island’s Major League team academies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

It drafted a plan that was informed by secret trips to border cities made by Canadian army generals, who would pose as tourists and snap photos of bridges and highways for intelligence.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

From 1966 through 1968, an average of 25,000 men would be drafted every month.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin

Overseeing such a diverse mix is obviously too big a job for one person so Ellison added yet another flavor by drafting Ynon Kreiz as co-chief executive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Students spent weeks searching library catalogs, locating journal articles, reading books, organizing notes, developing arguments, drafting and revising.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Since they started drafting the NPS, there has been a change of prime minister, and a change of political temperature on this issue.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

Some senators are drafting a bipartisan bill that could be introduced this week, which would likely try to impose a “duty of care” on frontier developers, the analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

But the drafting boards of America’s engineers remained dishearteningly barren.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Related Words

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