drag on


verb (used with object), dragged, dragging.
to draw with force, effort, or difficulty; pull heavily or slowly along; haul; trail: They dragged the carpet out of the house.
to search with a drag, grapnel, or the like: They dragged the lake for the body of the missing man.
to introduce; inject; insert: He drags his honorary degree into every discussion.
to protract (something) or pass (time) tediously or painfully (often followed by out or on ): They dragged the discussion out for three hours.
verb (used without object), dragged, dragging.
to be drawn or hauled along.
to trail on the ground.
to move heavily or with effort.
to proceed or pass with tedious slowness: The parade dragged by endlessly.
to feel listless or apathetic; move listlessly or apathetically (often followed by around ): This heat wave has everyone dragging around.
to lag behind.
to use a drag or grapnel; dredge.
to take part in a drag race.
to take a puff: to drag on a cigarette.
a designed increase of draft toward the stern of a vessel.
resistance to the movement of a hull through the water.
any of a number of weights dragged cumulatively by a vessel sliding down ways to check its speed.
any object dragged in the water, as a sea anchor.
any device for dragging the bottom of a body of water to recover or detect objects.
Agriculture. a heavy wooden or steel frame drawn over the ground to smooth it.
Slang. someone or something tedious; a bore: It's a drag having to read this old novel.
a stout sledge or sled.
a four-horse sporting and passenger coach with seats inside and on top.
a metal shoe to receive a wheel of heavy wagons and serve as a brake on steep grades.
something that retards progress.
an act of dragging.
slow, laborious movement or procedure; retardation.
a puff or inhalation on a cigarette, pipe, etc.
the scent left by a fox or other animal.
something, as aniseed, dragged over the ground to leave an artificial scent.
Also called drag hunt. a hunt, especially a fox hunt, in which the hounds follow an artificial scent.
a brake on a fishing reel.
the sideways pull on a fishline, as caused by a crosscurrent.
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.
clothing characteristic of a particular occupation or milieu: Two guests showed up in gangster drag.
Also called comb. Masonry. a steel plate with a serrated edge for dressing a stone surface.
Metallurgy. the lower part of a flask. Compare cope2 ( def 5 ).
Slang. influence: He claims he has drag with his senator.
Slang. a girl or woman that one is escorting; date.
Informal. a street or thoroughfare, especially a main street of a town or city.
Eastern New England. a sledge, as for carrying stones from a field.
marked by or involving the wearing of clothing characteristically associated with the opposite sex; transvestite.
drag one's feet/heels, to act with reluctance; delay: The committee is dragging its feet coming to a decision.

1350–1400; 1920–25 for def 17; Middle English; both noun and v. probably < Middle Low German dragge grapnel, draggen to dredge, derivative of drag- draw; defs. 29-30, 38, obscurely related to other senses and perhaps a distinct word of independent orig.

outdrag, verb (used with object), outdragged, outdragging.

1. See draw. 11. linger, loiter.
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World English Dictionary
drag (dræɡ)
vb (often foll by on or out) (foll by out) (when intr, usually foll by for) , drags, dragging, dragged
1.  to pull or be pulled with force, esp along the ground or other surface
2.  (tr; often foll by away or from) to persuade to come away (from something attractive or interesting): he couldn't drag himself away from the shop
3.  to trail or cause to trail on the ground
4.  (tr) to move (oneself, one's feet, etc) with effort or difficulty: he drags himself out of bed at dawn
5.  to linger behind
6.  to prolong or be prolonged tediously or unnecessarily: his talk dragged on for hours
7.  to pass (time) in discomfort, poverty, unhappiness, etc: he dragged out his few remaining years
8.  to search (the bed of a river, canal, etc) with a dragnet or hook: they dragged the river for the body
9.  (tr foll by out or from) to crush (clods) or level (a soil surface) by use of a drag
10.  (of hounds) to follow (a fox or its trail) to the place where it has been lying
11.  slang (intr) to draw (on a cigarette, pipe, etc)
12.  computing to move (data) from one place to another on the screen by manipulating a mouse with its button held down
13.  drag anchor (of a vessel) to move away from its mooring because the anchor has failed to hold
14.  informal drag one's feet, drag one's heels to act with deliberate slowness
15.  drag someone's name in the mud to disgrace or defame someone
16.  the act of dragging or the state of being dragged
17.  an implement, such as a dragnet, dredge, etc, used for dragging
18.  Also called: drag harrow a type of harrow consisting of heavy beams, often with spikes inserted, used to crush clods, level soil, or prepare seedbeds
19.  a sporting coach with seats inside and out, usually drawn by four horses
20.  a braking or retarding device, such as a metal piece fitted to the underside of the wheel of a horse-drawn vehicle
21.  a person or thing that slows up progress
22.  slow progress or movement
23.  aeronautics the resistance to the motion of a body passing through a fluid, esp through air: applied to an aircraft in flight, it is the component of the resultant aerodynamic force measured parallel to the direction of air flow
24.  the trail of scent left by a fox or other animal hunted with hounds
25.  an artificial trail of a strong-smelling substance, sometimes including aniseed, drawn over the ground for hounds to follow
26.  See drag hunt
27.  angling unnatural movement imparted to a fly, esp a dry fly, by tension on the angler's line
28.  informal a person or thing that is very tedious; bore: exams are a drag
29.  slang a car
30.  short for drag race
31.  slang
 a.  women's clothes worn by a man, usually by a transvestite (esp in the phrase in drag)
 b.  (as modifier): a drag club; drag show
 c.  clothes collectively
32.  informal a draw on a cigarette, pipe, etc
33.  slang (US) influence or persuasive power
34.  slang chiefly (US) a street or road
[Old English dragan to draw; related to Swedish dragga]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Word Origin & History

mid-15c., from O.N. draga, or a dialect variant of O.E. dragan "to draw," from P.Gmc. *dragan "to draw, pull," from PIE base *dhragh- "to draw, drag on the ground" (cf. Skt. dhrajati "pulls, slides in," Rus. drogi "wagon," and related to L. trahere; see tract (1)). Related:
Dragged; dragging. Meaning "to take a puff" (of a cigarette, etc.) is from 1914. Sense of "annoying, boring person or thing" is 1813; sense of "women's clothing worn by a man" is said to be 1870 theater slang, from the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor (another guess is Yiddish trogn "to wear," from Ger. tragen); drag queen is from 1941. Drag-out "violent fight" is from c.1859. Drag racing (1954) is from slang sense of "wagon, buggy" (1755), because a horse would drag it. By 1851 this was transferred to "street," as in the phrase main drag, and it was adopted by hot rodders for "race on city streets." To drag (one's) feet (1946, in figurative sense) is supposedly from logging, from a lazy way to use a two-man saw.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
drag   (drāg)  Pronunciation Key 
A force acting on a moving body, opposite in direction to the movement of the body, caused by the interaction of the body and the medium it moves through. The strength of drag usually depends on the velocity of the body. ◇ Drag caused by buildup of pressure in front of the moving body and a decrease in pressure behind the body is called pressure drag. It is an important factor in the design of aerodynamically efficient shapes for cars and airplanes. ◇ Drag caused by the viscosity of the medium as the molecules along the body's surface move through it is called skin drag or skin friction. It is an important factor in the design of efficient surface materials for cars, airplanes, boat hulls, skis, and swimsuits. Compare lift. See Note at aerodynamics.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

drag on

Also, drag out. Prolong or be prolonged tediously. For example, The speech dragged on for another hour, or He dragged out the story in an excruciating manner. [First half of 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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