" drag "

[Verb]  | "drag" | \ ˈdrag \

1: to draw or pull slowly or heavily : haul

2: to cause to move with slowness or difficulty

3: to cause to trail along a surface

Origin: 15th century ;

 Middle English draggen "to pull, draw, transport," of uncertain origin;

  * Note : This verb has obvious semantic affinity with Old English dragan "to {draw:1|draw:1}," but there is no evident explanation for /g/ and the short vowel; borrowing from Old Norse (compare Old Icelandic draga "to drag, pull") would also not result in a preserved /g/. Compare {drag:2|drag:2}.;

[Noun]  | "drag" 

1: something used to drag with; especially : a device for dragging under water to detect or obtain objects

2: something that is dragged, pulled, or drawn along or over a surface: such as

3: harrow

Origin: 14th century ;

 Middle English dragge "dragnet, harrow, barge," of uncertain origin;

  * Note : Later senses (in early Modern and Modern English) are largely by zero derivation (i.e., derivation of one part of speech from another without change of form) from {drag:2|drag:2}. Though Middle English dragge has clear semantic and phonetic affinity with Old English dragan "to {draw:1|draw:1}" and dræge "dragnet" (see: {dray:1|dray:1}), the /g/ is difficult to explain. Middle Low German draggen "grappling hook for boarding a ship" and sik draggen an "to board a ship" may well be related, but are too distant in sense to be a loan source. Compare {drag:2|drag:2}.;

[Noun]  | "drag" 

1: entertainment in which performers caricature or challenge gender stereotypes (as by dressing in clothing that is stereotypical of another gender, by using exaggeratedly gendered mannerisms, or by combining elements of stereotypically male and female dress) and often wear elaborate or outrageous costumes —often used before another noun

2: the costumes worn by drag performers; also : stereotypically gendered clothing worn by someone who is of a different gender

3: costume; especially : a costume used to impersonate a person or kind of person

Origin: 1870 ;

 Of obscure origin;

  * Note : The word drag in the sense "female clothing worn by a man" (hence in drag "wearing female clothing") first appears in the newspaper records of the judicial examinations of Thomas Ernest Boulton (1847-1904) and William Frederick Park (1847-1881), both sons of wealthy families and amateur actors who engaged in cross-dressing. Boulton and Park, dressed as women, were arrested on April 28, 1870, as they were leaving the Strand Theatre in London and charged with "buggery" and conspiring to "openly and scandalously outrage public decency and corrupt public morals." (They were acquitted after a jury trial in May, 1871.) In the examination that took place on May 21, 1870, the hotelkeeper Edward Nelson Haxell testified that Amos Gibbings, part of the circle to which Boulton and Parks belonged, had told him that instead of arranging a musical party at the hotel, "he would make it a little fancy dress affair, and said 'We shall come in drag,' which means men wearing women's costumes." The judge then asked "This is the first time the meaning of the word 'drag' has been given in evidence?" There was no immediate reply, but Haxell later said "I never heard the slang phrase 'drag' used by anybody else than Gibbings." (Quotes are from Reynolds's Newspaper, May 29, 1870, p. 5.) The word was taken up by the press, notably in two imaginative wood-block engravings of William Frederick Park, one showing him in male dress labeled "Park in Mufti" and another in female dress labeled "Park in 'Drag'" (The Days' Doings, May 21, 1871, p. 8). It is unclear if this sense of drag has any relation to the earlier verb and noun. J. Redding Ware's dictionary (Passing English of the Victorian Era [London, 1909?]) has a citation from The Referee (July 24, 1887) containing the appropriate sense of drag ("Mrs Sheppard is now played by a man …I don't like to see: low coms. in drag parts …") Ware's definition, however—"petticoat or skirt used by actors when playing female parts"—looks like a contrived attempt to explain a usage he did not completely understand, and his etymology ("Derived from the drag of the dress, as distinct from the non-dragginess of the trouser") is not very convincing. The acronymic explanation "dressed as a girl" is even less convincing. Paul Baker lists the word as both Polari (a lexicon used among gay men in Britain with roots in the argot of theatrical and circus performers) and general slang, a treatment also accorded to camp—see: {camp:3|camp:3}; see: Fantabulosa : A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang (London, 2004), p. 112.;

[Noun]  | "drag race" 

1: an acceleration contest between vehicles

Origin: 1947 ;

[Noun]  | "drag bunt" 

1: a bunt in baseball made by a left-handed batter by trailing the bat while moving toward first base; broadly : a bunt made with the object of getting on base safely rather than sacrificing

Origin: 1915 ;

[Noun]  | "drag coefficient" 

1: a factor representing the drag acting on a body (such as an automobile or airfoil)

Origin: 1916 ;

[Noun]  | "drag king" 

1: a person and especially a woman who dresses as a man and performs as an entertainer in male drag

Origin: 1969 ;

[Adjective]  | "drag" 

1: of, being, involving, or intended for a person wearing clothing typical of the opposite sex : of, being, involving, or intended for a person in drag

Origin: 1861 ;

 From attributive use of {see: |drag:3|drag:3};

[Adjective]  | "drag-and-drop" | \ ˈdrag-ən(d)-ˈdräp \

1: allowing the movement of items (such as icons) by dragging them to a new location

Origin: 1985 ;

[Verb]  | "drag" 

[Verb]  | "drag (out)" 

[Noun]  | "drag" 

[Phrase]  | "drag one's feet" 

[Adjective]  | "knock-down, drag-out"