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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Draft

Drȧft, n.

noun

n. [Originally a corrupt spelling of draught, q. v., but authorized by respectable use.]

Sense 1. The act of drawing; the drawing of loads by beasts of burden.

Sense 2. (Mil.) A selection of men from a military band; a selecting or detaching of soldiers from an army, or any part of it, or from a military post; also from any company or collection of persons, or from the people at large.

Several of the States had supplied the deficiency by drafts to serve for the year. Marshall.

Sense 3. An order from one man to another, directing the payment of money; a bill of exchange.

I thought it most prudent to defer the drafts till advice was received of the progress of the loan. Hamilton.

Sense 4. An allowance or deduction made from the gross weight of goods. Simmonds.

Sense 5. A drawing of lines for a plan; a figure described on paper; delineation; sketch; plan delineated; an outline to be filled in or completed for composition. See DRAUGHT.

Sense 6. Depth of water necessary to float a ship. See DRAUGHT.

Sense 7. A current of air. See DRAUGHT.

A stone-floored room, where there was a . . . strong, thorough draft of air. Dickens.

Drăft, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. DRAFTED; p. pr. & vb. n. DRAFTING.]

Sense 1. To draw the outline of; to delineate.

Sense 2. To compose and write; as, to draft a memorial or a lease.

Sense 3. To draw from a military band or post, or from any company, collection, or society; to detach; to select.

This Cohen-Caph-El was some royal seminary in Upper Egypt, from whence they drafted novices to supply their colleges and temples. Holwell.