Draw

DRAW, verb transitive preterit tense drew; participle passive drawn. [Latin It is only a dialectical spelling of drag, which see.]

1. To pull along; to haul; to cause to move forward by force applied in advance of the thing moved or at the fore-end, as by a rope or chain. It differs from drag only in this, that drag is more generally applied to things moved along the ground by sliding, or moved with greater toil or difficulty, and draw is applied to all bodies moved by force in advance, whatever may be the degree of force. draw is the more general or generic term, and drag, more specific. We say, the horses draw a coach or wagon, but they drag it through mire; yet draw is properly used in both cases.

2. To pull out, as to draw a sword or dagger from its sheath; to unsheathe. Hence, to draw the sword, is to wage war.

3. To bring by compulsion; to cause to come.

Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seat? James 2:6.

4. To pull up or out; to raise from any depth; as, to draw water from a well.

5. To suck; as, to draw the breasts.

6. To attract; to cause to move or tend towards itself; as a magnet or other attracting body is said to draw it.

7. To attract; to cause to turn towards itself; to engage; as, a beauty or a popular speaker draws the eyes of an assembly, or draws their attention.

8. To inhale; to take air into the lungs; as, there I first drew air; I draw the sultry air.

9. To pull or take from a spit, as a piece of meat.

10. To take from a cask or vat; to cause or to suffer a liquid to run out; a, to draw wine or cider.

11. To take a liquid form the body; to let out; as, to draw blood or water.

12. To take from an over; as, to draw bread.

13. To cause to slide; as a curtain, either in closing or unclosing; to open or unclose and discover, or to close and conceal. To draw the curtain is used in both sense.

14. To extract; as, to draw spirit from grain or juice.

15. To produce; to bring, as an agent or efficient cause; usually followed by a modifying word; as, piety draws down blessings; crimes draw down vengeance; vice draws on us many temporal evils; war draws after it a train of calamities.

16. To move gradually or slowly; to extend.

They drew themselves more westerly.

17. To lengthen; to extend in length.

How long her face is drawn.

In some similes, men draw their comparisons into minute particulars of no importance.

18. To utter in a lingering manner; as, to draw a groan.

19. To run or extend, by marking or forming; as, to draw a line on paper, or a line of circumvallation. Hence,

20. To represent by lines drawn on a plain surface; to form a picture or image; as, to draw the figure of man; to draw the face. Hence,

21. To describe; to represent by words; as, the orator drew an admirable picture of human misery.

22. To represent in fancy; to image in the mind.

23. To derive; to have or receive from some source, cause or donor; as, to draw the rudiments of science from a civilized nation; to draw consolation from divine promises.

24. To deduce; as, to draw arguments from facts, or inferences from circumstantial evidence.

25. To allure; to entice; to lead by persuasion or moral influence; to excite to motion.

DRAW me; we will run after thee. Song of Solomon 1:4.

Men shall arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Acts 20:30.

26. To lead, as a motive; to induce to move.

My purposes do draw me much about.

27. To induce; to persuade; to attract towards; in a very general sense.

28. To win; to gain; a metaphor from gaming.

29. To receive or take, as from a fund; as, to draw money from a bank or from stock in trade.

30. To bear; to produce; as, a bond or note draws interest from its date.

31. To extort; to force out; as, his eloquence drew tears from the audience; to draw sighs or groans.

32. To wrest; to distort; as, to draw the scriptures to ones fancy.

33. To compose; to write in due form; to form in writing; as, to draw a bill of exchange; to draw a deed or will.

34. To take out of a box or wheel, as tickets in a lottery. We say, to draw a lottery, or to draw a number in the lottery.

35. To receive or gain by drawing; as, to draw a prize. We say also, a number draws a prize or a blank, when it is drawn at the same time.

36. To extend; to stretch; as, to draw wine; to draw a piece of metal by beating, etc.

37. To sink into the water; or to require a certain depth of water for floating; as, a ship draws fifteen feet of water.

38. To bend; as, to draw the bow. Isaiah 66:19.

39. To eviscerate; to pull out the bowels; as, to draw poultry.

40. To withdraw. [Not used.]

To draw back, to receive back, as duties on goods for exportation.

To draw in,

1. To collect; to apply to any purpose by violence.

A dispute, in which every thing is drawn in, to give color to the argument.

2. To contract; to pull to a smaller compass; to pull back; as, to draw int he reins.

3. To entice, allure or inveigle; as, to draw in others to support a measure.

To draw off,

1. To draw form or away; also, to withdraw; to abstract; as, to draw off the mind from vain amusements.

2. To draw or take from; to cause to flow from; as, to draw off wine or cider from a vessel.

3. To extract by distillation.

To draw on,

1. To allure; to entice; to persuade or cause to follow.

The reluctant may be drawn on by kindness or caresses.

2. To occasion; to invite; to bring on; to cause.

Under color of war, which either his negligence drew on, or his practices procured, he levied a subsidy.

To draw over,

1. To raise, or cause to come over, as in a still.

2. To persuade or induce to revolt from an opposing party, and to join ones own party. Some men may be drawn over by interest; others by fear.

To draw out,

1. To lengthen; to stretch by force; to extend.

2. To beat or hammer out; to extend or spread by beating, as a metal.

3. To lengthen in time; to protract; to cause to continue.

Thy unkindness shall his death draw out to lingering sufferance.

Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Psalms 84:1.

4. To cause to issue forth; to draw off; as liquor from a cask.

5. To extract, as the spirit of a substance.

6. To bring forth; to pump out, by questioning or address; to cause to be declared, or brought to light; as, to draw out facts from a witness.

7. To induce by motive; to call forth.

This was an artifice to draw out from us an accusation.

8. To detach; to separate from the main body; as, to draw out a file or part of men.

9. To range in battle; to array in a line.

To draw together, to collect or be collected.

To draw up,

1. To raise; to lift; to elevate.

2. To form in order of battle; to array.

3. To compose in due form, as a writing; to form in writing; as, to draw up a deed; to draw up a paper.

In this use, it is often more elegant to omit the modifying word. [See No. 33.]

DRAW, verb intransitive

1. To pull; to exert strength in drawing. We say, a horse or an ox draws well.

2. To act as a weight.

Watch the bias of the mind, that it may not draw too much.

3. To shrink; to contract into a smaller compass.

4. To move; to advance. The day draws towards evening.

5. To be filled or inflated with wind, so as to press on and advance a ship in her course; as, the sails draw

6. To unsheathe a sword. His love drew to defend him. In this phrase, sword is understood.

7. To use or practice the art of delineating figures; as, he draws with exactness.

8. To collect the matter of an ulcer or abscess; to cause to suppurate; to excite to inflammation, maturation and discharge; as, an epispastic draws well.

To draw back,

1. To retire; to move back; to withdraw.

2. To renounce the faith; to apostatize. Hebrews 10:22.

To draw near or nigh, to approach; to come near.

To draw off, to retire; to retreat; as, the company drew off by degrees.

To draw on,

1. To advance; to approach; as, the day draws on.

2. To gain on; to approach in pursuit; as, the ship drew on the chase.

3. To demand payment by an order or bill, called a draught.

He drew on his factor for the amount of the shipment.

You may draw on me for the expenses of your journey.

To draw up, to form in regular order; as, the troops drew up in front of the palace; the fleet drew up in a semicircle.

DRAW, in most of its uses, retains some shade of its original sense, to pull, to move forward by the application of force in advance, or to extend in length. And Johnson justly observes, that it expresses an action gradual or continuous, and leisurely. We pour liquor quick, but we draw it in a continued stream. We force compliance by threats, but we draw it by gradual prevalence. We write a letter with haste, but we draw a bill with slow caution, and regard to a precise form. We draw a bar of metal by continued beating.

DRAW, noun

1. The act of drawing.

2. The lot or chance drawn.