DRAG, v.t. [G., L. See Drink and Drench.]

1. Something to be drawn along the ground, as a net or a hook.
2. A particular kind of harrow.
3. A car; a low cart.
4. In sea-language, a machine consisting of a sharp square frame of iron, encircled with a net, used to take the wheel off from the platform or bottom of the decks. – Mar. Dict. Encyc.
5. Whatever is drawn; a boat in tow; whatever serves to retard a ship's way. – Encyc.

1. To hang so low as to trail on the ground.
2. To fish with a drag; as, they have been dragging for fish all day, with little success.
3. To be drawn along; as, the anchor drags.
4. To be moved slowly; to proceed heavily; as, this business drags.
5. To hang or grate on the floor, as a door.

1. To pull; to haul; to draw along the ground by main force; applied particularly to drawing heavy things with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing. – John xxi. 8.
2. To break land by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow; a common use of the word in New England.
3. To draw along slowly or heavily; to draw any thing burdensome; as, to drag a lingering life. – Dryden.
4. To draw along in contempt, as unworthy to be carried. He drags me at his chariot wheels. – Stillingfleet. To drag one in chains. – Milton.
5. To pull or haul about roughly and forcibly. – Dryden. In seamen's language, to drag an anchor is to draw or trail it along the bottom when loosened, or when the anchor will not hold the ship.

1. A confection; a comfit; a drug.
   
   
   [Obs.] Chaucer.
2. To draw slowly or heavily onward; to pull along the ground by main force; to haul; to trail; -- applied to drawing heavy or resisting bodies or those inapt for drawing, with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing.
   
   

   Dragged by the cords which through his feet were thrust. Denham.

   The grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down. Tennyson.

   A needless Alexandrine ends the song
   That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Pope.

3. To be drawn along, as a rope or dress, on the ground; to trail; to be moved onward along the ground, or along the bottom of the sea, as an anchor that does not hold.
4. The act of dragging; anything which is dragged.
5. To break, as land, by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow; to draw a drag along the bottom of, as a stream or other water; hence, to search, as by means of a drag.
   
   

   Then while I dragged my brains for such a song. Tennyson.

6. To move onward heavily, laboriously, or slowly; to advance with weary effort; to go on lingeringly.
   
   

   The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun. Byron.

   Long, open panegyric drags at best. Gay.

7. A net, or an apparatus, to be drawn along the bottom under water, as in fishing, searching for drowned persons, etc.
8. To draw along, as something burdensome; hence, to pass in pain or with difficulty.
   
   

   Have dragged a lingering life. Dryden.

   To drag an anchor (Naut.), to trail it along the bottom when the anchor will not hold the ship.

   Syn. -- See Draw.

9. To serve as a clog or hindrance; to hold back.
   
   

   A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her. Russell.

10. A kind of sledge for conveying heavy bodies; also, a kind of low car or handcart; as, a stone drag.
11. To fish with a dragnet.
12. A heavy coach with seats on top; also, a heavy carriage.
    
    
    [Collog.] Thackeray.
13. A heavy harrow, for breaking up ground.
14. Anything towed in the water to retard a ship's progress, or to keep her head up to the wind; esp., a canvas bag with a hooped mouth, so used. See Drag sail (below).
    
    
    (b)
15. Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged.
    
    
    "Had a drag in his walk." Hazlitt.
16. The bottom part of a flask or mold, the upper part being the cope.
17. A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.
18. The difference between the speed of a screw steamer under sail and that of the screw when the ship outruns the screw; or between the propulsive effects of the different floats of a paddle wheel. See Citation under Drag, v. i., 3.
    
    

    Drag sail (Naut.), a sail or canvas rigged on a stout frame, to be dragged by a vessel through the water in order to keep her head to the wind or to prevent drifting; -- called also drift sail, drag sheet, drag anchor, sea anchor, floating anchor, etc. -- Drag twist (Mining), a spiral hook at the end of a rod for cleaning drilled holes.