• draught (British spelling of many senses, but not all)

A phonetic spelling of draught (compare laughter), from Middle English draught, draght (“that which is pulled; that which is drawn up, a design”), from Old English *dreaht, *dræht, from Proto-West Germanic *drahti, *drahtu, from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz (“a pulling, drawing”), equivalent to draw (“to draw, drag”) +‎ -t. Cognate with Dutch dracht, German Tracht, Icelandic dráttur.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɹɑːft/

  Rhymes: -ɑːft

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /dɹæft/

  Rhymes: -æft

  Audio (US):

  (file)

draft (countable and uncountable, plural drafts)

1. (American spelling)
   1. A current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
   2. The draw through a flue of gasses or smoke resulting from a combustion process.
   3. An act of drinking.
   4. The quantity of liquid (such as water, alcohol, or medicine) drunk in one swallow.

      Synonyms: swig; see also Thesaurus:drink

      to drink at a draft

      She took a deep draft from the bottle of water.

   5. A dose (of medicine, alcohol, etc.).
   6. Liquid, especially beer or other alcohol, drawn from a cask or keg rather than a bottle or can.
      • 1863, Thomas George Shaw, Wine, the Vine, and the Cellar, page 152:

        From 1767 to 1774 no pale wine was bottled but for immediate use; only draft wine of all kinds was used in the principal taverns, and it was often very bad, not from tricks of the vintners, but from bad management.

      • 2015 September 14, Jeff Smith, Craft Cider: How to Turn Apples into Alcohol, The Countryman Press, →ISBN:

        Another positive trend is the increase of quality in draft cider options. Draft cider has often been, and sometimes still is, considered an inferior product by cider traditionalists, who believe a true cider should come in a bottle or […]

   7. (nautical) The depth of water needed to float a particular ship; the depth from the waterline to the bottom of a vessel's hull; the depth of water drawn by a vessel.
2. (Universal spelling)
   1. A version of a written work (such as a book or paper) or drawing.

      I have to revise the first draft of my term paper.

      His first drafts were better than most authors' final products.

      • 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43:

        Dr Richard Beeching's handwritten draft of his report survives in the National Archives.

   2. An unsent e-mail.
   3. A preliminary sketch or outline for a plan.
   4. A cheque; an order for money to be paid.
3. (US, Canada, usually with the) Conscription; the system of forcing people to serve in the military.

   He left the country to avoid the draft.

4. (politics, US) A system of forcing or convincing people to take an elected position.
5. (sports, US) A system of assigning rookie players to professional sports teams.
6. (American spelling, rail transport) The pulling force (tension) on couplers and draft gear during a slack (stretched) condition.
7. The bevel given to the pattern for a casting, so that it can be drawn from the sand without damaging the mould.
8. (American spelling, possibly archaic)
   1. The action or an act (especially of a beast of burden or vehicle) of pulling something along or back.

      using oxen for draft

      shot forth an arrow with a mighty draft

      • 1988, Kenneth W. Russell, Afther Eden, page 39:

        In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in the U.S., "strong" ploughs requiring the draft of four and sometimes six oxen were frequently used for breaking land which had previously lain fallow for several years.

   2. The act of drawing in a net for fish.
   3. That which is drawn in; a catch; a haul.

      He cast his net, which brought him a very great draft.

9. (British English, possibly archaic) A quantity that is requisitioned or drawn out from a larger population.
   • 1841, Alexander Walker, Intermarriage, page 325:

     As an instance: amongst a draft of young hounds from Earl F itzwilliam's was one, of whom Will Deane, his huntsman, made this remark in his letter, 'that he could not guess at Lord Foley's dislike to the hound called Glider, then sent, which was of the best blood in the country, being got by Mr. Meynell's Glider out of Lord Fitzwilliam's Blossom, and was moreover the most promising young hound he had ever entered;...

   • 1904, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1 - Volume 42, page 83:

     These drafts left between the 17th March and 28th April. After this there was no regular system of artillery drafts. A draft of 80 was detailed to take charge of horses on board ship as all cavalry drafts were for the time exhausted, and this draft sailed on the 30th June.

   • 1982, John Maxwell, Brian Edmund Lloyd, Bertha Mac Smith, Letters of John Maxwell, Superintendent of Government Stock, page 206:

     The Complaint about the Beef lately furnished for the use of the Troops &c at Parramatta, is not without foundation; when I commenced supplying the several Stations with animal food in January last, — a Draft of very fat Oxen was brought from Wellington for that purpose, — that draft has met the consumption of several Stations until now. — the Cattle lately remaining fell very much off in condition, though I certainly consider they were not inferior to a great deal of Beef, I have seen taken from Contractors.

   • 1993, Lord Anglesey, A History of the British Cavalry 1816-1919: Volume 2: 1851-1871:

     An earlier draft of horses for the 4th Light Dragoons, however,was very different.

   • 2009, Philip Warner, A Cavalryman in the Crimea:

     The Light Brigade have got a draft of about 250 horses from England, and we expect ours shortly.

10. (Appalachia)
    1. A small stream or tributary.
       • 1801, Surveys 43, page 428, quoted in 1940, George Davis McJimsey, Topographic Terms in Virginia, page 63:

         Crossing several ridges & hollows & two small drafts of water.

       • 2003, John Alexander Williams, Appalachia: A History, page 113:

         Hollows were tributary to a cove or another type of sizable valley threaded by a creek or, in Pennsylvania, a “run,” and in Virginia, a “draft.”

       • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:draft.
    2. (especially Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania) A ravine or narrow valley, especially one through which a stream (at least intermittently) flows.
       • 1887, Andrew Smith McCreath, Edward Vincent D'Invilliers, The New River-Cripple Creek Mineral Region of Virginia:

         [page 24:] About one quarter of a mile up the draft, the same blue-gray limestone is opened in a quarry on the Graham and Robinson farm, […]
         [page 31:] Up along a narrow draft heading south-east from the creek at Southern's place, a series of small pits and trenches have been dug close to the ridge […] above the level of the creek.

       • 1894, Charles D Lanier, “Sawney's Deer-Lick”, in Scribner's Magazine, page 101:

         Then came the pleasant toil up and down the ridges and drafts of the Knob.

       • 1894, Charles D. Lanier, “On the Trail of the Wild Turkey”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 89, number 534, page 883:

         Now you have left the dividing "backbone", and climb up and down a never-ending succession of ridges and "drafts," as the ravines are called. […] a searching reconnoitre of the next long draft opened to view.

Although draft is usually an American spelling, senses 8–10 are universal, being used in both British and American English. Senses 11–13 are used in American English only. Where a particular sense is an American spelling, it is spelt draught in British English.

draft (third-person singular simple present drafts, present participle drafting, simple past and past participle drafted)

1. (transitive) To write a first version; to make a preliminary sketch.
2. To draw in outline; to make a draught, sketch, or plan of, as in architectural and mechanical drawing.
3. To write a law.
4. To select (someone or something) for a particular role or purpose.

   There was a campaign to draft Smith to run for President.

   They drafted me to be the chairperson of the new committee.

   • 1960 May, “Southern Newsreel”, in Trains Illustrated, page 315, photo caption:

     Class "H16" 4-6-2T No. 30516 has been drafted to the Fawley branch and is here seen working a 747-ton test train across Frost Lane crossing, near Hythe, on March 6 [...].

   1. (transitive, US) To conscript (a person); to force (a person) to serve in some capacity, especially in the military.

      He was drafted during the Vietnam War.

   2. To select and separate an animal or animals from a group.

      The calves were drafted from the cows.

   3. (transitive, sports, US) To select a rookie player onto a professional sports team.

      After his last year of college football, he was drafted by the Miami Dolphins.

5. (transitive, intransitive) To follow very closely (behind another vehicle), thereby providing an aerodynamic advantage to both lead and follower and conserving energy or increasing speed.

   Synonym: slipstream

   • 2020 September 13, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     At the restart, the positions of the Mercedes drivers was reversed. Hamilton drafted Bottas down to Turn One and took the lead around the outside, controlling the race from there.

6. To draw out; to call forth.
7. To draw fibers out of a clump, for spinning in the production of yarn.

draft (not comparable) (American spelling)

1. (not comparable) Referring to drinks on tap, in contrast to bottled.

   I'd rather have a fresh, cheap draft beer.

2. Referring to animals used for pulling heavy loads.

   A Clydesdale is a draft horse.

• draw

• “draft”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “draft”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Michael B. Montgomery, Jennifer K. N. Heinmiller, Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English (2021), draft: "A small stream or a tributary of one", "A ravine or gully through which water intermittently flows or once flowed"
• DARE Survey (Marlinton WV, 1968): "a very narrow valley"
• Charles Forster Smith, On Southernisms (1886), draught: "valley of a stream smaller than a creek"
• Josiah Combs, A word-list from the Southern highlands (1944): "a brook or small stream"

Borrowed from English draft.

• IPA^(key): /dʁaft/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

draft m or f (plural drafts)

1. (sports) draft

From English draw.

draft n (definite singular draftet, indefinite plural draft or drafter, definite plural drafta or draftene)

1. nautical chart

Although this word is in common use, it is noted as a misnomer, see references.

• sjøkart
• kystkart

• “draft” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English draw.

draft n (definite singular draftet, indefinite plural draft, definite plural drafta)
draft f (definite singular drafta, indefinite plural drafter, definite plural draftene)

1. nautical chart

Although this word is in common use, it is noted as a misnomer, see Bokmål references.

• sjøkart
• kystkart

• “draft” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

draft m (plural drafts)

1. draft (in sports)

draft

1. Alternative form of draught

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 36