draught
Pluraldraughts
Verbdraughts, draughting, draughted
US spellingdraft
Pluraldraughts
Formsdraughts, draughting, draughted
- 1A stream of moving air inside a room or another enclosed space.
We fitted a strip of foam round the frame to stop the draught.
The old sash windows let in draughts that the radiators could never keep up with.
UsageMoving air is a draught; a first version of a letter or plan is spelt draft. You feel or stop a draught.
- 2Describing a drink served straight from a tap rather than poured from a bottle.
The bar keeps four draught ales and a draught cider on at the weekend.
He insists that draught stout tastes smoother than the bottled kind.
UsageUsually before a noun: draught beer, draught cider. After a verb, say the beer is on draught.
Note
Here the two Englishes part company: British English writes draught beer and draught cider, American English draft beer. The word is draw with a -t added, handed down from Old English, and the picture is literal: the drink is drawn from the cask or keg instead of poured from a bottle.
- 3The drink itself, usually beer, that is drawn from a cask or keg rather than bottled or canned, spoken of as something to order or drink.
The pub keeps six real ales on draught as well as a local cider.
He ordered a pint of draught and a packet of crisps and sat down by the fire.
UsageMost often in on draught, as in cider on draught, or in a pint of draught.
- 4A deep gulp of a drink, or as much liquid as is taken in one gulp.
The walker unscrewed his flask and took a deep draught of hot tea.
She drained the glass in a single draught and asked for another.
UsageUsually take a long or deep draught of a drink, or finish it in one draught.
- 5The depth of water a vessel requires to stay afloat, measured from its waterline down to the underside of the hull.
With a draught of under a metre, the narrowboat can reach the upper stretches of the canal.
The largest container ships have such deep draughts that only a handful of ports can take them.
UsageUsually deep or shallow: a shallow draught, a draught of two metres. Sailors say a ship draws two metres.
Note
Sailors say a ship draws so many metres of water, and this meaning is the noun of that use of draw. A deep draught limits where a vessel can go, which is why canal boats are built shallow and the largest ships are kept to deep-water ports.
Checked 4 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- A ship draws a stated depth of water. en.wiktionary.org
- Draught is the corresponding noun related to draw. en.wiktionary.org
- Deep draught restricts where vessels can navigate. en.wikipedia.org
- Canal boats have shallow draughts suited to canal navigation. en.wikipedia.org
- The largest ships require deep-water ports. reporting.portofrotterdam.com
- 6Used of an animal whose work is hauling heavy loads.
Shire horses were once the most common draught animals on English farms.
A pair of draught oxen dragged the cart slowly up the hill.
Note
The animal is named for what it draws: a draught horse or ox exists to pull heavy loads, and the Clydesdale is a familiar breed of it. As with the drink on tap, British writing keeps the spelling draught, so the American draft horse is a draught horse here.
- 7To draw something in outline, or prepare a sketch or plan of it, as in architectural and engineering drawing.
The practice needs someone to draught the elevations for the new library.
He spent the whole week draughting a new gearbox at the drawing board.
Less common meanings
- 8A playing piece moved about the board in a game of draughts.
One black draught was missing, so we used a button instead.
Once a draught reaches the far side of the board, it is crowned and becomes a king.
UsageThe game is draughts, usually with a singular verb (draughts is easy to learn); one piece is a draught.
Note
British English uses one word for the game and its pieces: you play draughts with a set of draughts, where American English plays checkers with checkers.
- 9A single measured quantity of medicine in liquid form, taken by drinking it.
The nurse gave him a sleeping draught and turned out the light.
Before leaving, the doctor mixed a sleeping draught and told her to drink it all just before bed.
UsageMost often in the phrase sleeping draught.
- 10A picture of any kind, including a drawing.
And therefore, for the whole process, and full representation, there must be more than one draught; the one representing him in station, the other in session, another in genuflexion.
1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia EpidemicaNote
In older writing this could be any picture at all, a finished portrait as much as a sketch: Thomas Browne, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, calls for several draughts of one man, standing, seated and kneeling. The use is obsolete: in modern English the word no longer names a finished picture.
Checked 4 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Historically, draught could mean any picture or drawing, without being restricted to a preliminary sketch. en.wiktionary.org
- Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica describes multiple draughts representing the same person standing, seated and kneeling. en.wiktionary.org
- 11A surprise assault on an enemy, made without warning.
drawing sudden draughts upon the enemy when he looketh not for you
1596, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of IrelandeNote
A military use from the late sixteenth century. In Edmund Spenser's dialogue on the state of Ireland, the speaker Eudoxus sums up the plan as drawing sudden draughts upon the enemy when he is not looking for them. It has long been obsolete, and a modern reader will think of air or drink instead.
Checked 4 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The military use occurs in a work written in the late sixteenth century. celt.ucc.ie
- Edmund Spenser wrote the work about the state of Ireland containing this example. myweb.ecu.edu
- The speaker is Eudoxus, who describes the tactics proposed by Irenius in Spenser's dialogue. celt.ucc.ie
- The passage describes surprise attacks on an unsuspecting enemy. celt.ucc.ie
- 12A privy, or the cesspit beneath it into which human waste was emptied.
Rid me these Villaines from your companies; / Hang them, or stab them, drowne them in a draught, / Confound them by some course, and come to me, / Ile giue you Gold enough.
c. 1605, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”Then sayde Jesus: are ye yett withoute understondinge? perceave ye not, that whatsoever goeth in at the mouth, descendeth doune into the bely, and ys cast out into the draught?
1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt (Tyndale Bible)Note
Readers meet this word in Tyndale's New Testament of 1526, where whatever goes in at the mouth descends into the belly and is cast out into the draught, and again in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. It has no modern use; today it would be called a privy, a cesspit or an outside toilet.
Checked 4 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Tyndale's complete New Testament was printed in 1526. tyndale.org
- Matthew 15:17 in Tyndale's New Testament contains the passage paraphrased here, including 'draught'. biblehub.com
- The word also occurs in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, spoken by Timon. gutenberg.org
- 13A gentle blistering agent applied to the skin.
Note
A word from older medicine, long obsolete. This draught was laid on the skin to raise a mild blister rather than swallowed, so it is easily confused with a dose of medicine to drink, a meaning the word still has. In older medical writing, the context of skin or plaster tells the two apart.
Checked 4 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Draught had an obsolete medical sense meaning a mild blistering agent. en.wiktionary.org
- A vesicatory is an agent that causes blistering. en.wiktionary.org
- The separate oral medical sense denotes a dose of medicine. en.wiktionary.org
- Historical writing describes external drafts as plasters; references to skin or plaster therefore provide contextual clues to this sense. gutenberg.org
Showing meanings only.
Used only in American English, spelled draft: to write a first version; to choose someone for a role; to conscript someone; to sort animals from a flock; to pick players in a sports draft; to ride close behind another vehicle; to draw out fibres for spinning; to pick cards in a card game draft.
Practice
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Origin
It comes down from Middle English draught or draght, and before that from an Old English form, not found in writing, that was related to dragan ("to draw, drag"). That form goes back to Proto-Germanic *drahtuz, a noun built from *draganą. Put simply, it is draw + -t.