drafted

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of draft.

   He drafted the proposal in a single afternoon.

   The new recruits were drafted into the army during the war.

   Note

   One spelling covers both the past tense and the participle: she drafted the bill; the bill was drafted; he has drafted a reply. Behind it stand several meanings: writing a first version, sketching a plan, framing a law, picking someone for a role, separating animals from a herd, and the American sense of conscripting. That last sense settles into the "conscripted" adjective.

2. 2
   adjectiveUS

   Required by law to serve in the military rather than enlisting voluntarily.

   Drafted soldiers made up most of the infantry during the war.

   He argued that the drafted men deserved the same respect as the volunteers.

   Oppositevoluntary

   Note

   An American word for the soldier who did not choose to serve, so drafted men stand opposite volunteers. Outside the US, conscripted is the clearer choice. As an adjective it sits before the noun (drafted soldiers). Keep it apart from the broader idea of being picked for a role, which the verb form also carries.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having a particular depth of water needed to float, typically described in relative terms such as shallow or deep for a vessel.

   The shallow-drafted ferry crossed the reef without trouble.

   Deep-drafted cargo ships must wait for high tide to cross the bar.

   Note

   A sailor's adjective that rarely stands alone. It pairs with a word of depth, as in shallow-drafted or deep-drafted, and the pair can be hyphenated or written open before a noun. The comparison is the point: a shallow-drafted johnboat suits fishermen because it floats where a deeper hull would run aground.

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