drake

plural drakes

1. A male duck (bird).

   A drake belonging to a chemist, having drunk water out of a copper vessel which had contained phosphorous, continued its amorous activities until death.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 202

plural drakes

1. archaicpoeticA dragon.

   Clay caught sight of the drake's wing outlined against the rising flames as it swept low over the desert.

   2016, Anthony Ryan, The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria

   1. archaicpoeticfantasyA lesser draconic creature.
2. historyA beaked galley, or Viking warship.

   Synonyms: dragon, dragonship

3. historicalA small piece of artillery.

   Two or three shots, made at them by a couple of drakes, made them stagger.

   1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater

4. abbreviationarchaicShort for firedrake (“a fiery meteor”).

   The moon’s my constant Mistresse & the lowlie owle my morrowe. The flaming Drake and yͤ Nightcrowe make

   c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665)

5. abbreviationarchaicShort for drakefly (“a mayfly”).
   1. archaicA mayfly used as fishing bait.

1. An English surname transferred from the nickname, originally a byname from Old English draca or Old Norse draki, both meaning “dragon”.
   1. Francis Drake (1540-1596), English sea captain, pirate, and explorer of the Elizabethan era.
2. An Irish surname, anglicized from Drach, itself a Hiberno-Norman name English Drake.
3. A male given name transferred from the surname.

   Drake was not at all what I'd anticipated. His macho soap opera name had put me in mind of aristocrats or oversexed mallards.

   2004, Torey Hayden, chapter 4, in Twilight Children, HarperCollins UK, published 2013, →ISBN

4. A locality in the Tenterfield council area, north eastern New South Wales, Australia.
5. A village in Saskatchewan, Canada.
6. A ward of Plymouth, Devon, England; named for aqueduct Drake's Leat, itself for Francis Drake, Mayor of Plymouth at the time of its construction.
7. A locale in the United States.
   1. A city in North Dakota; named for early settler Herman Drake.
   2. An unincorporated community in Yavapai County, Arizona.
   3. An unincorporated community in Colorado.
   4. An unincorporated community in Illinois.
   5. An unincorporated community in Kentucky.
   6. An unincorporated community in Missouri; named for Missouri statesman Charles D. Drake.
   7. An unincorporated community in South Carolina.