Drāught1, n.
(drāft), n. [A-S. drōht, a drawing, course, from drugan. See DRAW.] 1. The act of drawing or pulling; as, (a.) The act of moving loads by drawing, as by beasts of burden, and the like.
A general custom of using oxen for all sort of draught would be, perhaps, the greatest improvement. Temple.
(b.) The drawing of a bow-string. [Obs.]
She sent an arrow forth with mighty draught. Spenser.
(c.) The act of drawing a net; a sweeping the water for fish.
Upon the draught of a pond, not one fish was left. Hale.
(d.) The act of drawing liquor into the mouth and throat; the act of drinking.
In his hands he took the goblet, but a while the draught forbore. Trench.
(e.) (Mil.) The act of drawing men from a military band, army, or post, or from any company or society; detachment; also, formerly, a sudden attack or drawing upon an enemy.
Sudden draughts upon the enemy when he looketh not for you. Spenser.
(f.) The act of drawing up, marking out, or delineating; representation.
Sense 2. That which is drawn; as, (a.) That which is taken by sweeping with a net.
He cast his net, which brought him a very great draught. L’Estrange.
(b.) The quantity drawn in at once in drinking; a potion or potation.
Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired. Goldsmith.
(c.) (Mil.) Forces drawn; a detachment; draft. (d.) A sketch, outline, or representation, whether written, designed, or drawn; a delineation.
No picture or draught of these things from the report of the eye. South.
(e.) (Com.) An order for the payment of money; a bill of exchange; draft. (f.) A current of air moving through an inclosed place, as through a room or up a chimney.
He preferred to go and sit upon the stairs, in . . . a strong draught of air, until he was again sent for. Dickens.
Sense 3. That which draws; as, (a.) A sink or drain; a sewer. Shak. (b.) (pl.) (Med.) A mild vesicatory; a sinapism; as, to apply draughts to the feet.
Sense 4. Capacity of being drawn; yielding to a force that draws or drags.
The Hertfordshire wheel-plow . . . is of the easiest draught. Mortimer.
Sense 5. (Naut.) The depth of water necessary to float a ship, or the depth a ship sinks in water, especially when laden; as, a ship of twelve feet draught.
Sense 6. (Com.) A small allowance on weighable goods, made by the king to the importer, or by the seller to the buyer, to insure full weight. [Eng.] Simmonds.
Sense 7. (pl.) A certain game played on a checkered board; checkers. See CHECKERS.
Sense 8. The bevel given to the pattern for a casting, in order that it may be drawn from the sand without injury to the mold.
Angle of draught, the angle made with the line of motion in a plane over which a body is drawn, by the line of draught, when the latter has the direction best adapted to overcome the obstacles of friction and the weight of the body. — Blast-draught, the draft produced by a blast, as by artificially rarefying the air above a fire. — Forced draught, the draft produced by a blower, as by compressing the air beneath a fire. — Natural draught, the draft produced by the atmosphere rushing by its own pressure into a chimney wherein air or gas, rarefied by heat, has produced a partial vacuum by rising.