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 a taper on a die or punch permitting it to be withdrawn readily from the work.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

Macron's office has said the president has no plans to give up on his push to bar children from apps such as TikTok and the government would work on a new draft law.

From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026

With Columbia, Ms. Van Erem objected that draft findings implicated protected speech.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Conference organizers shared a draft of King’s bill and a supporting brief on the Ten Commandments’ history in classrooms.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

The club didn’t make any big moves in that department in the offseason, nor did it draft any cornerbacks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Washington recognized the improvement, congratulating Hamilton for rendering him “with less egotism,” meaning the Hamilton draft covered the wounds, or at least prevented the president from displaying them too conspicuously.

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

Didn’t they circulate scores of drafts for everyone to see?

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

In response to questions from ProPublica, Winn said “I can’t really comment on internal drafts of correspondence.”

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

Both have player drafts, salary caps, free-agency rules and other restraints that would be suspicious in ordinary markets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

"We are co-ordinating very closely with the Omanis to facilitate the talks between both sides, exchanging ideas, drafts between both sides," Ansari told reporters.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Rough drafts of articles and scrap paper with notes were carried back to the Times building and put through the basement shredder.

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

He’d be drafted No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026

As he did in Houston, quarterback Trey Lance turned in a respectable performance — this time against the franchise that drafted him third overall in 2020.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

Back in May, the Giants acquired Tugboat in a trade with the Guardians, the organization that drafted him.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

Kushner drafted a statement condemning the Capitol violence that the White House never issued.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026

“I didn’t wait to get drafted like some. I enlisted.”

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

Home with his mother before school, he was drafting a note to a teacher about a bad grade, and in between, he tapped out a few jokes and deleted each one.

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026

AI threatens to make some software tools obsolete, particularly those built around narrow tasks such as legal drafting, research and other repetitive work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

“And so we want to make sure that the productive conversations we’ve had the last couple of weeks on that section specifically are reflected in the drafting of the bill.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

The audio was recorded during the drafting of the 2017 memoir that Biden penned with co-writer Mark Zwonitzer.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

During the drafting process in the summer of 1796, Washington kept urging Hamilton to insert a separate section on the creation of a national university in the capital city now being constructed on the Potomac.

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

Related Words

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