drain

DRAYN/dɹeɪn/

18 meanings of drain

1
nounCanadaUScountable
A pipe or channel that carries liquid away from an enclosed space such as a sink or basin.
The drain backed up after weeks of accumulated debris.
Every sink in the house empties through a single drain.
Similaroutlet, pipe, plughole, conduit
Oppositeinlet
Note
A North American word first of all. In the US and Canada, the opening in a sink, tub or basin, and the pipe behind it, is the drain. British speakers call the same opening the plughole. Water goes down a drain, often in a visible swirl, and a drain gets clogged. In British use the word leans instead toward the outdoor rainwater channel.
2
verbtransitive
To cause liquid to flow out of a container, pipe, or enclosed space.
Drain the radiator completely before replacing the coolant.
The technician drained the fuel tank for inspection.
Similarbleed
Oppositefill, refill
Note
The verb swings both ways. You drain the sink, and the sink drains: the same container is the object here and the subject in the intransitive use. In this sense, the object is the container rather than the liquid, as in drain the sink, the radiator or the tank. Compare drawing off the liquid itself. Bleed is a close synonym.
3
verbintransitive
To gradually lose the liquid that something contains as it flows away.
The flooded basement finally began to drain after the pump arrived.
Wet boots will drain faster near a warm vent.
Similarempty, dry
Oppositefill, flood
4
verbtransitive
To gradually use up a person's energy, money, or other resources until little remains.
Months of caregiving drained him both emotionally and financially.
Endless meetings drain the team's motivation.
Similarexhaust, sap, deplete, tire, weary
Oppositeenergize, refresh, invigorate, replenish
5
nouncountable
Something that continually consumes money, time, or energy while giving nothing in return.
The failing subsidiary became a serious drain on the parent company's profits.
Long commutes can be a real drain on both time and morale.
Similarstrain, burden, drag, liability
Oppositeboost
6
nouncountable
A natural or man-made watercourse that carries water away from a stretch of land.
A deep drain channels runoff from the hillside into the river.
Engineers mapped every drain crossing the valley floor.
Similarditch, channel, watercourse
Note
Here the word is landscape-sized: a drain can be a whole river channel, and it appears in place names such as Vermuyden's Drain, Saganing Drain and the Najafgarh drain. George Washington, in 1770, writes of "little runs and drains" coming through the hills. Verney Lovett Cameron's Across Africa (1877) calls one river "the main drain of the country," the stream that carries a whole region's water away.
7
verbtransitive
To remove the water from a permanently wet area so that it becomes dry.
Settlers drained the marsh to create farmland.
The project will drain hundreds of acres of bog.
Similarreclaim, dry
Oppositeflood, irrigate
8
verbintransitive
To flow away little by little, moving off slowly rather than all at once.
Meltwater drained down the mountainside in thin rivulets.
Blood seemed to drain from his face as he read the letter.
Similarflow, trickle, seep, ebb, run
9
verbtransitive
To draw off a liquid little by little so that it flows out gradually; by extension, to use something up or exhaust it.
Engineers drain the reservoir before inspecting its concrete walls.
The endless paperwork drained her enthusiasm for the project.
Similarempty, deplete, exhaust, sap
Oppositefill, replenish
Note
Here the object can be what is drawn off, not the vessel. Francis Bacon writes that fountains "drain the water from the ground adjacent." From there the verb moves to people and their stores, often with of. Congreve's The Old Batchelour (1693) has a speaker who can "drein her of 'em all," meaning her lady's secrets. Motley's The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856) has "drained their treasure."
10
nounUKcountable
An opening or channel that carries rainwater directly downstream within a drainage basin, bypassing sewers and treatment works, to prevent flooding.
Engineers inspected the drain to ensure it carried rainwater downstream without overwhelming the sewers.
Surface drains channel runoff into the basin, reducing the flood risk on low-lying roads.
Similargully, culvert, channel

11
verbslangtransitive
To successfully make a shot, as in basketball, sinking the ball cleanly through the basket.
He drained a long three-pointer at the buzzer.
Great shooters drain contested jumpers without hesitation.
Similarsink, hit, nail, bury, can
Oppositemiss, brick
Note
Courtside slang for a shot that goes in. A player drains a three-pointer, a jumper or a free throw, and long-range shots are the most common objects. The image is of the ball dropping cleanly through the net, touching little or nothing of the rim on the way. It suits commentary and casual talk better than formal reporting.
12
nounvulgarcountable
An instance of urinating.
He excused himself for a drain between innings.
After several pints, he badly needed a drain.
Similarpee, leak, slash, wee, piss
Note
Crude bodily slang that pictures the body as a tank being emptied. It typically follows need or have (he badly needed a drain). The word is vulgar, so it belongs among friends who do not mind coarse talk. In mixed or polite company, a neutral phrase is the safer choice. Do not confuse it with the old slang for a drink, which sits uncomfortably close.
13
nouncountable
One of the terminals of a field-effect transistor, through which current exits the device's channel.
The engineer measured the voltage between the drain and the source.
In this layout, the drain ties to the positive supply rail.
Oppositesource
Note
An engineer's borrowing from plumbing: charge carriers leave the transistor's conductive channel here, much as water leaves through an ordinary drain. The gate-to-source voltage governs how much drain current flows, and in an n-channel device conventional current runs from drain to source. In circuit talk the word usually travels in fixed pairings: drain and source, drain voltage, drain current.
14
noundatedUKcountable
A drink, especially an alcoholic one.
The lads stopped for a quick drain on the way home.
What did she want with money, except now and then for a drain of white satin.
1966, Henry Mayhew, Peter Quennell
Similardrink, dram, tipple, snifter, nip
Note
A nineteenth-century drink, offered with a wink. Dickens, in 1850, has a man suggest after a play, "perhaps you wouldn't object to a drain?" Henry Mayhew's London's Underworld speaks of "a drain of white satin." It is dated British slang now, best used for period color rather than for ordering at a bar. It pairs naturally with the archaic verb meaning to drink.
15
verbintransitive
Of the ball, to fall off the bottom of the playfield and out of play.
Two balls drain through the outlanes before the bonus even starts.
His final ball drained without scoring a single point.
Note
The ball is always the subject: a ball drains, and a player does not drain it. It can go down the middle or through the outlanes at the sides. The word carried over into video pinball, too. Steven A. Schwartz's Compute's Nintendo Secrets (1990) describes a draining ball "gulped down by a giant gator beneath the set of flippers."
16
nouncountable
On a pinball machine, the opening at the bottom of the playfield through which the ball leaves play.
The ball slipped past the flippers and dropped into the drain.
She nudged the table to steer the ball away from the drain.
Similarouthole
Note
Pinball names the hole by what happens there. It sits at the bottom of the playfield, below the flippers. Once a ball comes to rest in it, a kicker sends the ball back toward the trough or shooter lane, and that turn is over. Outhole is the more formal name for the same spot. Players use the same word as the verb for losing the ball.
17
verbarchaictransitive
To drink, especially to consume a beverage in full.
The soldiers drained their flagons before the march resumed.
He would drain a pint of ale before any other man finished his first.
Note
Archaic tavern slang, and the verb partner of the old noun for a drink. It reads most naturally with a vessel as its object, as in drain a pint or drain a flagon, meaning to empty it to the bottom. Used on its own to mean simply "drink," it sounds deliberately old-fashioned, so keep it for period writing or a knowing joke.
18
verbobsoletetransitive
To filter a liquid, removing solid pieces by passing it through a strainer or cloth.
Salt water, drained through twenty vessels of earth, hath become fresh.
1627, Francis [Bacon], Sylua Syluarum
Note
The oldest meaning surfaces here. Old English drēahnian meant "to drain, strain, filter." It came from a Germanic verb "to strain, sieve," built on a word for "dry," which makes drain kin to dry itself. Francis Bacon, in 1627, could still write of salt water "drained through twenty vessels of earth" becoming fresh. The filtering sense is now obsolete; strain or filter does that work today.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English dreinen, from Old English drēahnian ("to drain, strain, filter"), tracing back through Proto-Germanic roots linked to the idea of being dry or parched. It is akin to Old English words for drying up and dryness, and is related to "dry."