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''draught'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260727004347-00-⌔

draught - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

draught (countable and uncountable, plural draughts)

  • (British spelling) Alternative form of draft in some of its senses.
    • ✤ She could feel a draught where she was sitting.
    • ✤ […] he sayde vnto Simon: Cary vs into the depe, and lett slippe thy nett to make a draught.1
    • ✤ “Drink and pass!” he cried, handing the heavy charged flagon to the nearest seaman. “The crew alone now drink. Round with it, round! Short draughts —long swallows, men; ’tis hot as Satan’s hoof.2
    • ✤ Finally I gave him a draught, and he sank into uneasy slumber.3
    • ✤ Much as I wish that I had not to write this chapter, I know that I shall have to swallow many such bitter draughts in the course of this narrative. And I cannot do otherwise, if I claim to be a worshipper of Truth. […]4
    • ✤ All the L.N.E.R. Clyde vessels are paddle-propelled, because of the shallow draught at Craigendoran Pier.5
    • ✤ A standard type of donkey jacket made of white milled flannel is being introduced by British Railways for the use of staff working in tunnels where there are conditions of extreme cold, dampness and draught.6
  • (UK) A checker: a game piece used in the game of draughts.
  • (Australia) Ale: a type of beer brewed using top-fermenting yeast.
  • (UK, medicine, obsolete) A mild vesicatory.
  • (UK, obsolete) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.
    • ✤ Then sayde Jesus: are ye yett withoute understondinge? perceave ye not, that whatsoever goeth in at the mouth, descendeth doune into the bely, and ys cast out into the draught?7
    • ✤ Rid me these Villaines from your companies;/Hang them, or stab them, drowne them in a draught,/Confound them by some course, and come to me,/Ile giue you Gold enough.8
  • (UK, obsolete) Any picture or drawing.
    • ✤ And therefore, for the whole process, and full representation, there must be more than one draught; the one representing him in station, the other in session, another in genuflexion.9
  • (UK, obsolete) A sudden attack upon an enemy.
    • ✤ drawing sudden draughts upon the enemy when he looketh not for you10

Adjective

draught (not comparable)

  • (British spelling) Alternative spelling of draft
    • ✤ * draught beer or cider*
    • ✤ * draught oxen, a draught horse*

Verb

draught (third-person singular simple present draughts, present participle draughting, simple past and past participle draughted)

  • (British spelling) Alternative spelling of draft.
    • ✤ The Parliament so often draughted and drained.11

Etymology

From Middle English draught, draght, draȝt, from Old English ﹡dreaht, ﹡dræht (related to dragan (“to draw, drag”)), from Proto-Germanic ﹡drahtuz, noun form of ﹡draganą; equivalent to draw +‎ -t.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /dɹɑːft/
    • ✤ Rhymes: -ɑːft
  • (US) IPA: /dɹæft/
    • ✤ Rhymes: -æft

📊 ➺

  • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • Homophone: draft
  • (common in the 16–18th centuries, now nonstandard) IPA: /dɹɔt/1213

Printed 2026-07-27.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke: ↩

  2. 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 36”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC: ↩

  3. 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 35”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC: ↩

  4. 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter iii: ↩

  5. 1946 July and August, “Notes and News: The War Effect on the Clyde Steamers”, in Railway Magazine, page 324: ↩

  6. 1953 November, “Notes and News: New Clothing for Tunnel Workers”, in Railway Magazine, page 783: ↩

  7. 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew: ↩

  8. c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC,: ↩

  9. 1650, Thomas Browne, chapter V, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 22: ↩

  10. 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b] y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC: ↩

  11. 1826, [Walter Scott], Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC: ↩

  12. “draught”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.: “in late ME. the word[draught] was sometimes drawt, whence the frequent (drǭt) in 16th-18th c. rimes” ↩

  13. “draught”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.: “A pronunciation (drɔt) is sometimes heard for draught, perhaps because -aught is frequently pronounced (-ɔt) elsewhere, as in caught and taught.” ↩