DictionaryAI

drag

DRAG/dɹæɡ/

Verbdrags, dragging, dragged

Noun pluraldrags (some meanings)

46 meanings of drag

Practice

  1. 1
    pull alongverbtransitive
    To pull something along a surface, or through a liquid or gas, often because it is heavy or hard to move.

    He dragged the canoe up the muddy bank toward the cabin.

    Rescue workers had to drag the boat through thick reeds.

    UsageOften with a direction: drag it up the bank, out, over. The past form is dragged.

    Similarpull, haul, tow, lug, tug

    Oppositepush

  2. 2
    move with mouseverbtransitive
    To move an item on a screen by holding it with a mouse button, touchpad or finger while moving the pointer or finger.

    You can drag the slider to adjust the volume.

    He dragged the email into the trash by mistake.

    UsageMostly with a destination: drag the file into, onto or to something; also drag and drop.

    Similarmove, slide, pull

    Note

    An interface gesture in three parts: press a button over an item, move with it held, then release at the target. It also covers adjusting controls in place, as when you drag a slider to change the volume.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The mouse gesture consists of pressing and holding a button, moving the mouse, and releasing the button. docs.unidata.ucar.edu
  3. 3
    go on slowlyverbintransitive
    To move or proceed slowly and heavily, or to go on for a wearyingly long time.

    The lecture seemed to drag on without end.

    The procession dragged slowly up the hill.

    UsageOften drag on: the meeting dragged on. Alone, it judges pacing: the film drags.

    Similarcrawl, plod, trudge, lumber

    Oppositefly, race

    Note

    Here the subject does the dragging, usually time or whatever fills it. Byron writes "The day drags through" (1816), and A. A. Dowd's 2019 review says The Irishman "never drags."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Byron wrote the quoted words in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto III, stanza XXXII. upload.wikimedia.org
    • The canto containing the quotation was first published in 1816. gutenberg.org
    • A. A. Dowd’s 2019 review says that The Irishman never drags. avclub.com
  4. 4
    verbtransitive
    To get someone to go somewhere or take part in something they are reluctant to.

    Her friends had to drag her to the reunion, but she ended up having a great time.

    The company was dragged into the lawsuit through no fault of its own.

    UsageOften drag someone to or into something; passive: dragged into a lawsuit.

    Similarhaul, pull

  5. 5
    air resistancenoununcountable
    A force that acts against a moving object and slows it, especially the resistance of air or water.

    Engineers reshaped the wing to cut drag at high speeds.

    Swimmers shave their bodies to lower drag in the water.

    Similarresistance

    Note

    Physics treats it as a force the fluid exerts against motion, built from pressure differences and skin friction. It grows with the object's speed, the fluid's density and the frontal area facing the flow, which is why car makers design around it.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Drag is a force exerted by a fluid against relative motion, with pressure and skin-friction contributions. www1.grc.nasa.gov
    • Other conditions being equal, drag increases with speed, fluid density and frontal area. www1.grc.nasa.gov
    • Car makers design vehicles to reduce aerodynamic drag. press.bmwgroup.com
  6. 6
    gender performernounslangcountable
    A performer who adopts an exaggerated gendered persona (a drag king or drag queen) for entertainment.

    UsageIn-group talk; elsewhere, drag queen or drag king is clearer.

    Note

    A clipping of drag queen or drag king, and an in-group usage. Robert Haule's 1978 classified for a room in San Francisco ends "Drags & Dykes welcome," written as one community member to others.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Robert Haule placed a classified advertisement for a San Francisco room in 1978. en.wiktionary.org
  7. 7
    no funnounslangcountable
    A person or thing that is annoying, disappointing, or gets in the way of enjoyment.

    Cleaning the garage all weekend turned out to be a total drag.

    He's a bit of a drag at parties, always complaining about something.

    UsageWith an article or intensifier: a drag, a real drag, what a drag.

    Similarbore, pain, nuisance, chore, bummer

    Oppositeblast

    Note

    Older than its 1960s ring suggests. James David Forbes wrote in an 1865 letter that his lectures were "only a pleasure to me, and no drag." Bob Dylan's Positively 4th Street (1965) uses it in the familiar exclamatory frame.

  8. 8
    nounslanguncountable
    Clothing typical of another gender, worn for entertainment, especially in a stage performance.

    She designs costumes for performers who appear in drag.

    His drag is famous for its glittering gowns and towering wigs.

    UsageMostly in the fixed phrase in drag: performers who appear in drag.

    Note

    In drag is its fixed phrase: a speaker quoted in an 1870 Times court report already glosses it as slang. Quentin Crisp's The Naked Civil Servant (1968) recalls the clandestine "drag dances" that informers helped police find.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • An 1870 Times court report quotes a speaker explaining in drag as slang. en.wiktionary.org
    • Quentin Crisp wrote The Naked Civil Servant, first published in 1968. openlibrary.org
    • Crisp's book describes clandestine drag dances located by police with informers' help. pdf-archive.com
  9. 9
    weigh downverbtransitive
    To act as a hindrance or clog; to hold something back.

    Rising debt continued to drag on the company's recovery.

    A single weak player can drag down the whole team's performance.

    UsageOften drag on something or drag something down: debt drags on recovery, one player drags down the team.

    Similarhinder, hamper, impede, slow, encumber

    Oppositeboost, accelerate, spur

    Note

    A seaman's use gives the clearest picture. William Clark Russell's Sailors' Language (1883) says a propeller drags when the sails drive the vessel faster than the screw can, so the screw holds her back. The screw then works as a brake rather than a driver. On land it simply means acting as the dead weight that slows something down.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • William Clark Russell wrote Sailors' Language. openlibrary.org
    • Sailors' Language was first published in 1883; the original title page bears that year. archive.org
    • Russell describes a propeller dragging when sails drive the vessel faster than the screw's revolutions can propel it. archive.org
    • The screw's drag impedes the vessel, making the brake comparison a reasonable explanatory inference. gutenberg.org
  10. 10
    nouncolloquialcountable
    A short contest of acceleration between vehicles racing side by side down a straight track from a standing start; a drag race.

    The two cars ran a quarter-mile drag, and the Mustang won by a fender.

    The local strip runs drags for street-legal cars every Friday night.

    UsageThe full drag race is more common.

  11. 11
    scrapeverbintransitive
    To rub or scrape against a surface without meaning to.

    The car's bumper dragged on the steep driveway.

    Make sure the gate doesn't drag on the concrete.

    UsageOften with on + the surface: the bumper dragged on the driveway.

    Similarscrape, rub, catch

  12. 12
    main streetnounslangcountable
    A street, particularly the main road running through a town or city.

    The town's main drag was lined with diners and motels.

    Tourists wandered along the drag, peering into shop windows.

    UsageMostly in the main drag, a town's main street.

    Similarstrip, street, road, thoroughfare

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of drag apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–5, 7, 9, 11–12, 14–17, 19–24

Old English dragan ("to drag, draw") and Old Norse draga ("to draw, attract") blended to give Middle English draggen. Both trace to Proto-Germanic *draganą and, on the traditional account, to Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ-, meaning "to draw, drag." The noun drag ("something hauled") also shaped the verb, and draw is a doublet.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

Meanings 6, 8, 10, 13, 18, 25

Two origins have been suggested. The feel of long skirts trailing on the floor may have prompted a link with the English verb drag ("to pull along a surface"), or the source may be Yiddish טראָגן (trogn, "to wear").

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

  • English drag and Yiddish trogn have both been suggested as origins. en.wiktionary.org
  • The English-origin hypothesis links drag, meaning pulling along a surface, with long skirts trailing on the floor. en.wiktionary.org
  • The proposed Yiddish source is spelled טראָגן, transliterated trogn, and means 'wear'. en.wiktionary.org