drawl
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
drawls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
drawled,
past participle, past
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drawling
present participle
noun
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
drawlsimple
-
drawlssimple
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have drawledperfect
-
has drawledperfect
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am drawlingprogressive
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are drawlingprogressive
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is drawlingprogressive
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have been drawlingperfect progressive
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has been drawlingperfect progressive
Past
-
drawledsimple
-
had drawledperfect
-
was drawlingprogressive
-
were drawlingprogressive
-
had been drawlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of drawl
1590–1600; < Dutch or Low German dralen to linger
Explanation
A drawl is a distinctively slow, drawn-out way of talking that's especially common in the U.S. South. A writer might describe a cowboy as speaking in a lazy drawl. A drawl tends to lengthen and extend vowel sounds in particular, so that words like "pet" or "pen" might be pronounced with two syllables, rather than one short one. While the Southern states are best known for inhabitants with drawls, Australian and New Zealand natives are also sometimes said to drawl. The word probably stems from the Dutch dralen, "delay" or "linger."
Vocabulary lists containing drawl
Instead of "Said": Words That Sound Like What They Mean
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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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:
Cut to Cruise as a bombastic oil baron in “Digger,” encased in prosthetics, sounding off with a Texas drawl and firing a finger gun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
A petite bottle-blonde who spoke with the laid-back drawl of her native Arkansas, Pruett showed off memorabilia signed by the “Bagdad Cafe” director.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Luiz, a French cab driver ferrying festivalgoers around Cannes, does good impersonations of both a Long Island accent and a Southern drawl, said he loves talking with Americans.
From Salon ● May 22, 2026
Patricia Eddings, an expert in trace evidence, is short, with fiery red hair and a cheery Mississippi drawl.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
The voices went on—Tonie’s slow, Acadian drawl, Robert’s quick, soft, smooth French.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
Wilson said no one in the music industry has told her to smooth out her drawls and y’alls, but she said plenty of people on social media question whether her accent is exaggerated.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 7, 2022
"Okay, I've been practicing my longest and loudest scream," drawls Rhian Teesdale in Wet Leg's scathing indie-pop anthem Ur Mum.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2022
Hunsecker, the voracious, rat-a-tat newspaperman of “Sweet Smell of Success,” who sees a brawl and drawls, “I love this dirty town.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 31, 2021
“To have a garden like this is insane,” Avent drawls.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 11, 2019
None of the girls jokes or drawls when mentioning him.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
"Sorry to the people who were expecting Patchwork," he drawled after the song ended.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2025
Gibbons drawled in the most famous 30-second spot touting Grape-Nuts as the "back-to-nature" cereal.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2023
Over rattling production from super-producer Mike-WiLL Made-It, Trouble drawled his street tales, bringing them to life in the 37-minute short film that accompanied the album.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2022
“I got nothing — n-o-t-h-i-n-g,” he drawled to the reporters waiting outside the Democrats’ closed door lunchroom Thursday as it became clear there would be no Christmas deal.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 16, 2021
From the head table a familiar voice drawled, “Well, well, if it isn’t Peter Johnson. My millennium is' complete.”
From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan
With Richards’s gnarled, withering guitar lines and Jagger drawling and declaiming, there’s no mistaking the band behind “Foreign Tongues.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
No matter what role he took on in a career that lasted more than five decades, Gambon was always instantly recognizable by the deep and drawling tones of his voice.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 28, 2023
Yes, this film isn’t some Beatles-inspired riff but a sequel to the twisty 2019 romp “Knives Out,” which introduced Daniel Craig as the drawling detective Benoit Blanc.
From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2022
It’s New Orleans East, a part of the city that tourists, poets and drawling Big Easy narratives don’t visit.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2019
Math majors marveled to hear Dr. Claytor, originally from Norfolk, advancing sophisticated mathematical proofs in his drawling “country” accent.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
