draft

plural drafts · alternative draught

1. Senses relating to a current or flow or an amount which flows:
   1. UScountableuncountableA current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
   2. UScountableuncountableThe draw through a flue of gasses or smoke resulting from a combustion process.
   3. UScountableuncountableAn act of drinking.
   4. UScountableuncountableThe quantity of liquid (such as water, alcohol, or medicine) drunk in one swallow.

      to drink at a draft

      1 more example

      She took a deep draft from the bottle of water.

      Synonyms: swig

   5. UScountableuncountableA dose (of medicine, alcohol, etc.).
   6. UScountableuncountableLiquid, especially beer or other alcohol, drawn from a cask or keg rather than a bottle or can.

      From 1767 to 1774 no pale wine was bottled but for immediate use; only draft wine of all kinds was used in the principal taverns, and it was often very bad, not from tricks of the vintners, but from bad management.

      1863, Thomas George Shaw, Wine, the Vine, and the Cellar, page 152

      1 more example

      Another positive trend is the increase of quality in draft cider options. Draft cider has often been, and sometimes still is, considered an inferior product by cider traditionalists, who believe a true cider should come in a bottle or[…]

      2015 September 14, Jeff Smith, Craft Cider: How to Turn Apples into Alcohol, The Countryman Press, →ISBN

   7. UScountableuncountablenauticalThe depth of water needed to float a particular ship; the depth from the waterline to the bottom of a vessel's hull; the depth of water drawn by a vessel.
2. (Preliminary) written work:
   1. countableuncountableA version of a written work (such as a book or paper) or drawing.

      I have to revise the first draft of my term paper.

      2 more examples

      His first drafts were better than most authors' final products.

      Dr Richard Beeching's handwritten draft of his report survives in the National Archives.

      2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43

   2. countableuncountableAn unsent e-mail.
   3. countableuncountableA preliminary sketch or outline for a plan.
   4. archaiccountableuncountableAn order for money to be paid; the document that states it: a cheque, note, bond, bill of exchange, money order, or IOU.
3. Senses relating to conscription or selection from a pool:
   1. CanadaUScountableuncountableusuallyConscription; the system of forcing people to serve in the military.

      He left the country to avoid the draft.

   2. countableuncountableA person who has been drafted; a conscript or draftee.

      1 more example

      With these counsels, and many others equally valuable, did Papa Wick fortify Bobby ere that last awful night at Portsmouth when the Officers' Quarters held more inmates than were provided for by the Regulations, and the liberty-men of the ships fell foul of the drafts for India, and the battle raged from the Dockyard Gates even to the slums of Longport, while the drabs of Fratton came down and scratched the faces of the Queen's Officers.

      1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 135

   3. UScountableuncountablegovernmentA system of forcing or convincing people to take an elected position.
   4. UScountableuncountablehobbiesA system of assigning rookie players to professional sports teams.
   5. countableuncountablegamesA style of play in collectible card games, where players select from a shared pool of cards.
   6. BritishEnglisharchaiccountablepossiblyuncountableA quantity that is requisitioned or drawn out from a larger population.

      An earlier draft of horses for the 4th Light Dragoons, however,was very different.

      1993, Lord Anglesey, A History of the British Cavalry 1816-1919: Volume 2: 1851-1871

      4 more examples

      As an instance: amongst a draft of young hounds from Earl F itzwilliam's was one, of whom Will Deane, his huntsman, made this remark in his letter, 'that he could not guess at Lord Foley's dislike to the hound called Glider, then sent, which was of the best blood in the country, being got by Mr. Meynell's Glider out of Lord Fitzwilliam's Blossom, and was moreover the most promising young hound he had ever entered;...

      1841, Alexander Walker, Intermarriage, page 325

      These drafts left between the 17th March and 28th April. After this there was no regular system of artillery drafts. A draft of 80 was detailed to take charge of horses on board ship as all cavalry drafts were for the time exhausted, and this draft sailed on the 30th June.

      1904, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1 - Volume 42, page 83

      The Complaint about the Beef lately furnished for the use of the Troops &c at Parramatta, is not without foundation; when I commenced supplying the several Stations with animal food in January last, — a Draft of very fat Oxen was brought from Wellington for that purpose, — that draft has met the consumption of several Stations until now. — the Cattle lately remaining fell very much off in condition, though I certainly consider they were not inferior to a great deal of Beef, I have seen taken from Contractors.

      1982, John Maxwell, Brian Edmund Lloyd, Bertha Mac Smith, Letters of John Maxwell, Superintendent of Government Stock, page 206

      The Light Brigade have got a draft of about 250 horses from England, and we expect ours shortly.

      2009, Philip Warner, A Cavalryman in the Crimea

4. UScountableuncountableThe bevel given to the pattern for a casting, so that it can be drawn from the sand without damaging the mould.
5. Senses relating to pulling:
   1. UScountableuncountablerail transportThe pulling force (tension) on couplers and draft gear during a slack (stretched) condition.
   2. USarchaiccountablepossiblyuncountableThe action or an act (especially of a beast of burden or vehicle) of pulling something along or back.

      using oxen for draft

      2 more examples

      shot forth an arrow with a mighty draft

      In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in the U.S., "strong" ploughs requiring the draft of four and sometimes six oxen were frequently used for breaking land which had previously lain fallow for several years.

      1988, Kenneth W. Russell, Afther Eden, page 39

   3. USarchaiccountablepossiblyuncountableThe act of drawing in a net for fish.
   4. USarchaiccountablepossiblyuncountableThat which is drawn in; a catch; a haul.

      He cast his net, which brought him a very great draft.

6. A valley, or the stream that flows through it:
   1. AppalachiacountableuncountableA small stream or tributary.

      Crossing several ridges & hollows & two small drafts of water.

      1801, Surveys 43, page 428, quoted in 1940, George Davis McJimsey, Topographic Terms in Virginia, page 63

      1 more example

      Hollows were tributary to a cove or another type of sizable valley threaded by a creek or, in Pennsylvania, a “run,” and in Virginia, a “draft.”

      2003, John Alexander Williams, Appalachia: A History, page 113

   2. AppalachiaPennsylvaniaVirginiaWestcountableespeciallyuncountableA ravine or narrow valley, especially one through which a stream (at least intermittently) flows.

      Then came the pleasant toil up and down the ridges and drafts of the Knob.

      1894, Charles D Lanier, “Sawney's Deer-Lick”, in Scribner's Magazine, page 101

      2 more examples

      [page 24:] About one quarter of a mile up the draft, the same blue-gray limestone is opened in a quarry on the Graham and Robinson farm, […] [page 31:] Up along a narrow draft heading south-east from the creek at Southern's place, a series of small pits and trenches have been dug close to the ridge […] above the level of the creek.

      1887, Andrew Smith McCreath, Edward Vincent D'Invilliers, The New River-Cripple Creek Mineral Region of Virginia

      Now you have left the dividing "backbone", and climb up and down a never-ending succession of ridges and "drafts," as the ravines are called. […] a searching reconnoitre of the next long draft opened to view.

      1894, Charles D. Lanier, “On the Trail of the Wild Turkey”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 89, number 534, page 883

present singular third person drafts · participle present drafting · participle past drafted · past drafted · alternative draught

1. transitiveTo write a first version; to make a preliminary sketch.
2. To draw in outline; to make a draught, sketch, or plan of, as in architectural and mechanical drawing.
3. To write a law.
4. To select (someone or something) for a particular role or purpose.

   There was a campaign to draft Smith to run for President.

   2 more examples

   They drafted me to be the chairperson of the new committee.

   Class "H16" 4-6-2T No. 30516 has been drafted to the Fawley branch and is here seen working a 747-ton test train across Frost Lane crossing, near Hythe, on March 6 [...].

   1960 May, “Southern Newsreel”, in Trains Illustrated, page 315, photo caption

   1. UStransitiveTo conscript (a person); to force (a person) to serve in some capacity, especially in the military.

      He was drafted during the Vietnam War.

   2. To select and separate an animal or animals from a group.

      The calves were drafted from the cows.

   3. UStransitivehobbiesTo select a rookie player onto a professional sports team.

      After his last year of college football, he was drafted by the Miami Dolphins.

5. ambitransitiveTo follow very closely (behind another vehicle), thereby providing an aerodynamic advantage to both lead and follower and conserving energy or increasing speed.

   At the restart, the positions of the Mercedes drivers was reversed. Hamilton drafted Bottas down to Turn One and took the lead around the outside, controlling the race from there.

   2020 September 13, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC Sport

   Synonyms: slipstream

6. To draw out; to call forth.
7. To draw fibers out of a clump, for spinning in the production of yarn.
8. gamesTo play a collectible card game by strategically selecting from a shared pool of cards.

alternative draught

1. USnot comparableReferring to drinks on tap, in contrast to bottled.

   I'd rather have a fresh, cheap draft beer.

2. USnot comparableReferring to animals used for pulling heavy loads.

   A Clydesdale is a draft horse.