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 a taper on a die or punch permitting it to be withdrawn readily from the work.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

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Etymology

Origin of draft

Later spelling of draught (since 16th century)

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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

An early draft joint statement envisaged deeper cooperation on both AI infrastructure and regulation.

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026

The California-born athlete entered the NBA in 2020 when the Charlotte Hornets selected him with the third overall pick in the draft.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

In an unusual move, the draft came from the office of the health secretary rather than the FDA.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026

It allows Indigenous leaders to discuss the location and details of sensitive information — such as burial sites — confidentially, before draft environmental reviews are published.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

Fortunately for Jefferson, the leadership of the Kentucky legislature decided to delete the sections of his draft endorsing nullification, presumably because such open defiance of federal law seemed excessive and unnecessarily risky.

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

They had been working towards the same goal, and kept their drafts in OpenAI's coding tool, Codex.

From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026

It said it gathered all the working versions of the novel and hired an outside party to analyze the various drafts.

From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2026

I run partial or complete drafts through a chatbot and ask what it thinks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 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

“Leaks in the walls and drafts in every room,” Constance grumbled.

From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart

His move to Minnesota marked the end of a significant chapter in his career, with the point guard leaving the team that originally drafted him.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

Nearly everyone had McCarthy pegged for the same trajectory after Minnesota drafted him 10th in 2024.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

That could have meant that those dedicated to full-time religious study would now be drafted.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

A 35.6% three-point shooter while with Washington, where he was drafted ninth overall in 2019, Hachimura shot 44.3% from three during his last season with the Lakers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2026

In mid-November 1941, a group of Japanese artists and religious leaders— poets, painters, writers, photographers, and the like—are suddenly drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Many would-be landlords cringe at the legal costs of buying a property and drafting a lease.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2026

In the essay Robinson said his credentials include overseeing the writing of safety reports on 12 advanced model product launches and leading the drafting of OpenAI's Preparedness Framework.

From Barron's ● Oct. 3, 2026

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

"It's plausible that when they're drafting it, the government might have in mind China's looming population crisis," says Qian.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

Five days later, Werner March, stooping over his drafting table, had only until morning before he must lay preliminary plans in front of Hitler.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

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Related Words

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

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