Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Draw

Draw

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To pull; to exert strength in drawing anything; to have force to move anything by pulling;
as, a horse
draws
well; the sails of a ship
draw
well.
☞ A sail is said to draw when it is filled with wind.
2.
To draw a liquid from some receptacle, as water from a well.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to
draw
with, and the well is deep.
John iv. 11.
3.
To exert an attractive force; to act as an inducement or enticement.
Keep a watch upon the particular bias of their minds, that it may not
draw
too much.
Addison.
4.
(Med.)
To have efficiency as an epispastic; to act as a sinapism; – said of a blister, poultice, etc.
5.
To have draught, as a chimney, flue, or the like; to furnish transmission to smoke, gases, etc.
6.
To unsheathe a weapon, especially a sword.
So soon as ever thou seest him,
draw
; and as thou
drawest
, swear horrible.
Shakespeare
7.
To perform the act, or practice the art, of delineation; to sketch; to form figures or pictures.
“Skill in drawing.”
Locke.
8.
To become contracted; to shrink.
“To draw into less room.”
Bacon.
9.
To move; to come or go; literally, to draw one’s self; – with prepositions and adverbs; as, to draw away, to move off, esp. in racing, to get in front; to obtain the lead or increase it; to
draw back
, to retreat; to
draw level
, to move up even (with another); to come up to or overtake another; to
draw off
, to retire or retreat; to
draw on
, to advance; to
draw up
, to form in array; to
draw near
,
draw nigh
, or
draw towards
, to approach; to
draw together
, to come together, to collect.
10.
To make a draft or written demand for payment of money deposited or due; – usually with on or upon.
You may
draw
on me for the expenses of your journey.
Jay.
11.
To admit the action of pulling or dragging; to undergo draught;
as, a carriage
draws
easily
.
12.
To sink in water; to require a depth for floating.
“Greater hulks draw deep.”
Shak.
To draw to a head
.
(a)
(Med.)
To begin to suppurate; to ripen, as a boil.
(b)
Fig.:
To ripen, to approach the time for action;
as, the plot
draws to a head
.

Draw

,
Noun.
1.
The act of drawing; draught.
2.
A lot or chance to be drawn.
4.
That part of a bridge which may be raised, swung round, or drawn aside; the movable part of a drawbridge. See the Note under
Drawbridge
.
[U.S.]

Webster 1828 Edition

Draw

DRAW

,
Verb.
T.
pret. drew; pp. drawn. [L. It is only a dialectical spelling of drag, which see.]
1.
To pull along; to haul; to cause to move forward by force applied in advance of the thing moved or at the fore-end, as by a rope or chain. It differs from drag only in this, that drag is more generally applied to things moved along the ground by sliding, or moved with greater toil or difficulty, and draw is applied to all bodies moved by force in advance, whatever may be the degree of force. Draw is the more general or generic term, and drag, more specific. We say, the horses draw a coach or wagon, but they drag it through mire; yet draw is properly used in both cases.
2.
To pull out, as to draw a sword or dagger from its sheath; to unsheathe. Hence, to draw the sword, is to wage war.
3.
To bring by compulsion; to cause to come.
Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seat? James 2.
4.
To pull up or out; to raise from any depth; as, to draw water from a well.
5.
To suck; as, to draw the breasts.
6.
To attract; to cause to move or tend towards itself; as a magnet or other attracting body is said to draw it.
7.
To attract; to cause to turn towards itself; to engage; as, a beauty or a popular speaker draws the eyes of an assembly, or draws their attention.
8.
To inhale; to take air into the lungs; as, there I first drew air; I draw the sultry air.
9.
To pull or take from a spit, as a piece of meat.
10.
To take from a cask or vat; to cause or to suffer a liquid to run out; a, to draw wine or cider.
11.
To take a liquid form the body; to let out; as, to draw blood or water.
12.
To take from an over; as, to draw bread.
13.
To cause to slide; as a curtain, either in closing or unclosing; to open or unclose and discover, or to close and conceal. To draw the curtain is used in both sense.
14.
To extract; as, to draw spirit from grain or juice.
15.
To produce; to bring, as an agent or efficient cause; usually followed by a modifying word; as, piety draws down blessings; crimes draw down vengeance; vice draws on us many temporal evils; war draws after it a train of calamities.
16.
To move gradually or slowly; to extend.
They drew themselves more westerly.
17.
To lengthen; to extend in length.
How long her face is drawn.
In some similes, men draw their comparisons into minute particulars of no importance.
18.
To utter in a lingering manner; as, to draw a groan.
19.
To run or extend, by marking or forming; as, to draw a line on paper, or a line of circumvallation. Hence,
20.
To represent by lines drawn on a plain surface; to form a picture or image; as, to draw the figure of man; to draw the face. Hence,
21.
To describe; to represent by words; as, the orator drew an admirable picture of human misery.
22.
To represent in fancy; to image in the mind.
23.
To derive; to have or receive from some source, cause or donor; as, to draw the rudiments of science from a civilized nation; to draw consolation from divine promises.
24.
To deduce; as, to draw arguments from facts, or inferences from circumstantial evidence.
25.
To allure; to entice; to lead by persuasion or moral influence; to excite to motion.
Draw me; we will run after thee. Cant. 1.
Men shall arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20.
26.
To lead, as a motive; to induce to move.
My purposes do draw me much about.
27.
To induce; to persuade; to attract towards; in a very general sense.
28.
To win; to gain; a metaphor from gaming.
29.
To receive or take, as from a fund; as, to draw money from a bank or from stock in trade.
30.
To bear; to produce; as, a bond or note draws interest from its date.
31.
To extort; to force out; as, his eloquence drew tears from the audience; to draw sighs or groans.
32.
To wrest; to distort; as, to draw the scriptures to ones fancy.
33.
To compose; to write in due form; to form in writing; as, to draw a bill of exchange; to draw a deed or will.
34.
To take out of a box or wheel, as tickets in a lottery. We say, to draw a lottery, or to draw a number in the lottery.
35.
To receive or gain by drawing; as, to draw a prize. We say also, a number draws a prize or a blank, when it is drawn at the same time.
36.
To extend; to stretch; as, to draw wine; to draw a piece of metal by beating, &c.
37.
To sink into the water; or to require a certain depth of water for floating; as, a ship draws fifteen feet of water.
38.
To bend; as, to draw the bow. Isaiah 66.
39.
To eviscerate; to pull out the bowels; as, to draw poultry.
40.
To withdraw. [Not used.]
To draw back, to receive back, as duties on goods for exportation.
To draw in,
1.
To collect; to apply to any purpose by violence.
A dispute, in which every thing is drawn in, to give color to the argument.
2.
To contract; to pull to a smaller compass; to pull back; as, to draw int he reins.
3.
To entice, allure or inveigle; as, to draw in others to support a measure.
To draw off,
1.
To draw form or away; also, to withdraw; to abstract; as, to draw off the mind from vain amusements.
2.
To draw or take from; to cause to flow from; as, to draw off wine or cider from a vessel.
3.
To extract by distillation.
To draw on,
1.
To allure; to entice; to persuade or cause to follow.
The reluctant may be drawn on by kindness or caresses.
2.
To occasion; to invite; to bring on; to cause.
Under color of war, which either his negligence drew on, or his practices procured, he levied a subsidy.
To draw over,
1.
To raise, or cause to come over, as in a still.
2.
To persuade or induce to revolt from an opposing party, and to join ones own party. Some men may be drawn over by interest; others by fear.
To draw out,
1.
To lengthen; to stretch by force; to extend.
2.
To beat or hammer out; to extend or spread by beating, as a metal.
3.
To lengthen in time; to protract; to cause to continue.
Thy unkindness shall his death draw out to lingering sufferance.
Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Psalm 84.
4.
To cause to issue forth; to draw off; as liquor from a cask.
5.
To extract, as the spirit of a substance.
6.
To bring forth; to pump out, by questioning or address; to cause to be declared, or brought to light; as, to draw out facts from a witness.
7.
To induce by motive; to call forth.
This was an artifice to draw out from us an accusation.
8.
To detach; to separate from the main body; as, to draw out a file or part of men.
9.
To range in battle; to array in a line.
To draw together, to collect or be collected.
To draw up,
1.
To raise; to lift; to elevate.
2.
To form in order of battle; to array.
3.
To compose in due form, as a writing; to form in writing; as, to draw up a deed; to draw up a paper.
In this use, it is often more elegant to omit the modifying word. [See No. 33.]

DRAW

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To pull; to exert strength in drawing. We say, a horse or an ox draws well.
2.
To act as a weight.
Watch the bias of the mind, that it may not draw too much.
3.
To shrink; to contract into a smaller compass.
4.
To move; to advance. The day draws towards evening.
5.
To be filled or inflated with wind, so as to press on and advance a ship in her course; as, the sails draw.
6.
To unsheathe a sword. His love drew to defend him. In this phrase, sword is understood.
7.
To use or practice the art of delineating figures; as, he draws with exactness.
8.
To collect the matter of an ulcer or abscess; to cause to suppurate; to excite to inflammation, maturation and discharge; as, an epispastic draws well.
To draw back,
1.
To retire; to move back; to withdraw.
2.
To renounce the faith; to apostatize. Hebrews 10.
To draw near or nigh, to approach; to come near.
To draw off, to retire; to retreat; as, the company drew off by degrees.
To draw on,
1.
To advance; to approach; as, the day draws on.
2.
To gain on; to approach in pursuit; as, the ship drew on the chase.
3.
To demand payment by an order or bill, called a draught.
He drew on his factor for the amount of the shipment.
You may draw on me for the expenses of your journey.
To draw up, to form in regular order; as, the troops drew up in front of the palace; the fleet drew up in a semicircle.
Draw, in most of its uses, retains some shade of its original sense, to pull, to move forward by the application of force in advance, or to extend in length. And Johnson justly observes, that it expresses an action gradual or continuous, and leisurely. We pour liquor quick, but we draw it in a continued stream. We force compliance by threats, but we draw it by gradual prevalence. We write a letter with haste, but we draw a bill with slow caution, and regard to a precise form. We draw a bar of metal by continued beating.

DRAW

,
Noun.
1.
The act of drawing.
2.
The lot or chance drawn.

Definition 2024

draw

draw

English

Verb

draw ‎(third-person singular simple present draws, present participle drawing, simple past drew, past participle drawn)

  1. (heading) To move or develop something.
    1. To sketch; depict with lines; to produce a picture with pencil, crayon, chalk, etc. on paper, cardboard, etc.
      • Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774)
        A flattering painter who made it his care / To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.
      • Matthew Prior (1664-1721)
        Can I, untouched, the fair one's passions move, / Or thou draw beauty and not feel its power?
      • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess:
        Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.
    2. To deduce or infer.
      He tried to draw a conclusion from the facts.‎
    3. (intransitive) (of drinks, especially tea) To leave temporarily so as to allow the flavour to increase.
      Tea is much nicer if you let it draw for three minutes before pouring.‎
    4. (transitive) To take or procure from a place of deposit; to call for and receive from a fund, etc.
      to draw money from a bank‎
    5. To take into the lungs; to inhale.
      • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
        Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
      • 1979, Monty Python, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
        So always look on the bright side of death / Just before you draw your terminal breath
    6. (used with prepositions and adverbs) To move; to come or go.
      We drew back from the cliff edge.‎
      The runners drew level with each other as they approached the finish line.‎
      Draw near to the fire and I will tell you a tale.‎
    7. (transitive) To obtain from some cause or origin; to infer from evidence or reasons; to deduce from premises; to derive.
      • Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
        We do not draw the moral lessons we might from history.
    8. (transitive, obsolete) To withdraw.
    9. (archaic) To draw up (a document).
      to draw a memorial, a deed, or bill of exchange‎
  2. (heading) To exert or experience force.
    1. (transitive) To drag, pull.
      • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
        “[…] No rogue e’er felt the halter draw, with a good opinion of the law, and perhaps my own detestation of the law arises from my having frequently broken it. […]”
      • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot, Chapter VIII
        Lys shuddered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me; and thus we sat throughout the hot night. She told me of her abduction and of the fright she had undergone, and together we thanked God that she had come through unharmed, because the great brute had dared not pause along the danger-infested way.
      • At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar.
    2. (intransitive) To pull; to exert strength in drawing anything; to have force to move anything by pulling.
      This horse draws well.‎
      A ship's sail is said to draw when it is filled with wind.‎
    3. To pull out (as a gun from a holster, or a tooth).
      They drew their swords and fought each other.‎
    4. To undergo the action of pulling or dragging.
      The carriage draws easily.‎
    5. (archery) To pull back the bowstring and its arrow in preparation for shooting.
    6. (of curtains, etc.) To close.
      You should draw the curtains at night.‎
    7. (card games) To take the top card of a deck into hand.
      At the start of their turn, each player must draw a card.‎
  3. (heading, fluidic) To remove or separate or displace.
    1. To extract a liquid, or cause a liquid to come out, primarily water or blood.
      draw water from a well;  draw water for a bath;  the wound drew blood‎
      • Bible, John iv. 11
        The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.
      • George Cheyne (1671-1743)
        Spirits, by distillations, may be drawn out of vegetable juices, which shall flame and fume of themselves.
    2. To drain by emptying; to suck dry.
    3. (figuratively) To extract; to force out; to elicit; to derive.
    4. To sink in water; to require a depth for floating.
      A ship draws ten feet of water.‎
    5. (intransitive, medicine, dated) To work as an epispastic; said of a blister, poultice, etc.
    6. (intransitive, dated) To have a draught; to transmit smoke, gases, etc.
      A chimney or flue draws.‎
    7. (analogous) To consume, for example, power.
      The circuit draws three hundred watts.‎
  4. (heading) To change in size or shape.
    1. To extend in length; to lengthen; to protract; to stretch.
      to draw a mass of metal into wire‎
    2. (intransitive) To become contracted; to shrink.
  5. (heading) To attract or be attracted.
    1. To attract.
      The citizens were afraid the casino would draw an undesirable element to their town.  I was drawn to her.‎
      • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
        When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.
      • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
        By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
    2. (hunting) To search for game.
    3. To cause.
      • 2011 July 3, Piers Newbury, “Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final”, in BBC Sport:
        In a desperately tight opening set, the pace and accuracy of the Serbian's groundstrokes began to draw errors from the usually faultless Nadal and earned him the first break point of the day at 5-4.
    4. (intransitive) To exert an attractive force; to act as an inducement or enticement.
      • Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
        Keep a watch upon the particular bias of their minds, that it may not draw too much.
  6. (Usually as draw on or draw upon): to rely on; utilize as a source.
    She had to draw upon her experience to solve the problem.‎
  7. To disembowel.
    He will be hanged, drawn and quartered.‎
    • William King (1663-1712)
      In private draw your poultry, clean your tripe.
  8. (transitive or intransitive) To end a game in a draw (with neither side winning).
    We drew last time we played.  I drew him last time I played him.  I drew my last game against him.‎
    • 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Chessmen of Mars, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2010:
      The game is won when a player places any of his pieces on the same square with his opponent's Princess, or when a Chief takes a Chief. It is drawn when a Chief is taken by any opposing piece other than the opposing Chief; […]
  9. A random selection process.
    1. To select by the drawing of lots.
      The winning lottery numbers were drawn every Tuesday.‎
    2. (transitive) To win in a lottery or similar game of chance.
      He drew a prize.‎
    3. (poker) To trade in cards for replacements in draw poker games; to attempt to improve one's hand with future cards. See also draw out.
      Jill has four diamonds; she'll try to draw for a flush.‎
  10. (curling) To make a shot that lands in the house without hitting another stone.
  11. (cricket) To play (a short-length ball directed at the leg stump) with an inclined bat so as to deflect the ball between the legs and the wicket.
  12. (golf) To hit (the ball) with the toe of the club so that it is deflected toward the left.
  13. (billiards) To strike (the cue ball) below the center so as to give it a backward rotation which causes it to take a backward direction on striking another ball.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

draw ‎(plural draws)

  1. The result of a contest in which neither side has won; a tie.
    The game ended in a draw.
  2. The procedure by which the result of a lottery is determined.
    The draw is on Saturday.
    • 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0 - 1 Crawley Town”, in BBC:
      Having spent more than £500,000 on players last summer, Crawley can hardly be classed as minnows but they have still punched way above their weight and this kind of performance means no-one will relish pulling them out of the hat in Sunday's draw.
  3. Something that attracts e.g. a crowd.
    • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 27:
      After It, Clara became one of the top box-office draws in Hollywood, but her popularity was short lived.
  4. (cricket) The result of a two-innings match in which at least one side did not complete all their innings before time ran out. Different from a tie.
  5. (golf) A golf shot that (for the right-handed player) curves intentionally to the left. See hook, slice, fade.
  6. (curling) A shot that lands in the house without hitting another stone.
  7. (geography) A dry stream bed that drains surface water only during periods of heavy rain or flooding.
    • 1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia, Mirado Modern Classics, paperback edition, page 15
      The garden, curiously enough, was a quarter of a mile from the house, and the way to it led up a shallow draw past the cattle corral.
  8. (colloquial) Cannabis.
  9. In a commission-based job, an advance on future (potential) commissions given to an employee by the employer.
  10. (poker) A situation in which one or more players has four cards of the same suit or four out of five necessary cards for a straight and requires a further card to make their flush or straight.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Ryan Wiseman, Earn $30,000 Per Month Playing Online Poker: A Step-By-Step Guide to Single, page 82:
      The player to your left immediately raises you the minimum by clicking the raise button. This action immediately suggests that he's on a draw
  11. (archery) The act of pulling back the strings in preparation of firing.
  12. (sports) The spin or twist imparted to a ball etc. by a drawing stroke.

Synonyms

  • (The result of a contest in which neither side has won): stalemate
  • (dry stream bed that drains water during periods of heavy precipitation): dry creek

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English drawen, draȝen, dragen, from Old English dragan ‎(“to draw, drag, pull”), from Proto-Germanic *draganą (compare West Frisian drage, Dutch dragen, German tragen ‎(“to carry”), Danish drage), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreǵ- ‎(“to draw, pull”) (compare Albanian dredh ‎(“to turn, spin”), Old Armenian դառնամ ‎(daṙnam, “to turn”), Sanskrit ध्रजस् ‎(dhrájas, “gliding course or motion”). See also drag, draught.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /dɹɔː/
Rhymes: -ɔː
Homophone: drawer (UK)

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