drag

/drag/, v., dragged, dragging, n., adj.

v.t.

1. to draw with force, effort, or difficulty; pull heavily or slowly along; haul; trail: They dragged the carpet out of the house.

2. to search with a drag, grapnel, or the like: They dragged the lake for the body of the missing man.

3. to level and smooth (land) with a drag or harrow.

4. to introduce; inject; insert: He drags his honorary degree into every discussion.

5. to protract (something) or pass (time) tediously or painfully (often fol. by out or on): They dragged the discussion out for three hours.

6. to pull (a graphical image) from one place to another on a computer display screen, esp. by using a mouse.

v.i.

7. to be drawn or hauled along.

8. to trail on the ground.

9. to move heavily or with effort.

10. to proceed or pass with tedious slowness: The parade dragged by endlessly.

11. to feel listless or apathetic; move listlessly or apathetically (often fol. by around): This heat wave has everyone dragging around.

12. to lag behind.

13. to use a drag or grapnel; dredge.

14. to take part in a drag race.

15. to take a puff: to drag on a cigarette.

16. drag one's feet or heels, to act with reluctance; delay: The committee is dragging its feet coming to a decision.

n.

17. Naut.

a. a designed increase of draft toward the stern of a vessel.

b. resistance to the movement of a hull through the water.

c. any of a number of weights dragged cumulatively by a vessel sliding down ways to check its speed.

d. any object dragged in the water, as a sea anchor.

e. any device for dragging the bottom of a body of water to recover or detect objects.

18. Agric. a heavy wooden or steel frame drawn over the ground to smooth it.

19. Slang. someone or something tedious; a bore: It's a drag having to read this old novel.

20. a stout sledge or sled.

21. Aeron. the aerodynamic force exerted on an airfoil, airplane, or other aerodynamic body that tends to reduce its forward motion.

22. a four-horse sporting and passenger coach with seats inside and on top.

23. a metal shoe to receive a wheel of heavy wagons and serve as a brake on steep grades.

24. something that retards progress.

25. an act of dragging.

26. slow, laborious movement or procedure; retardation.

27. a puff or inhalation on a cigarette, pipe, etc.

28. Hunting.

a. the scent left by a fox or other animal.

b. something, as aniseed, dragged over the ground to leave an artificial scent.

c. Also called drag hunt. a hunt, esp. a fox hunt, in which the hounds follow an artificial scent.

29. Angling.

a. a brake on a fishing reel.

b. the sideways pull on a fishline, as caused by a crosscurrent.

30. clothing characteristically associated with one sex when worn by a person of the opposite sex: a Mardi Gras ball at which many of the dancers were in drag.

31. clothing characteristic of a particular occupation or milieu: Two guests showed up in gangster drag.

32. Also called comb. Masonry. a steel plate with a serrated edge for dressing a stone surface.

33. Metall. the lower part of a flask. Cf. cope² (def. 5).

34. Slang. influence: He claims he has drag with his senator.

35. Slang. a girl or woman that one is escorting; date.

36. Informal. a street or thoroughfare, esp. a main street of a town or city.

37. See drag race.

38. Eastern New Eng. a sledge, as for carrying stones from a field.

adj.

39. marked by or involving the wearing of clothing characteristically associated with the opposite sex; transvestite.

[1350-1400; 1920-25 for def. 18; ME; both n. and v. prob. < MLG dragge grapnel, draggen to dredge, deriv. of drag- DRAW; defs. 29-30, 38, obscurely related to other senses and perh. a distinct word of independent orig.]

Syn. 1. See draw. 11. linger, loiter.

* * *

Force exerted by a fluid stream on any obstacle in its path or felt by an object moving through a fluid.

Its magnitude and how it may be reduced are important to designers of moving vehicles, ships, suspension bridges, cooling towers, and other structures. Drag forces are conventionally described by a drag coefficient, defined irrespective of the shape of the body. Dimensional analysis reveals that the drag coefficient depends on the Reynolds number; the precise dependence must be elucidated experimentally and can be used to predict the drag forces experienced by other bodies in other fluids at other velocities. Engineers use this principle of dynamic similarity when they apply results obtained with a model structure to predict the behaviour of other structures. See also friction; streamline.

* * *