Draft Meaning
/dɹɑːft/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA current of air, usually coming into a room or vehicle.
nounThe draw through a flue of gasses or smoke resulting from a combustion process.
Sentence Examples
The committee approved the draft budget.
Mayuko made a fair copy of the draft.
This is only the first draft of my speech.
CEFR Practice Quiz
He nervously opened the envelope containing his ____ notice for military service.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The committee approved the ____ budget.
Word Origin & History
A phonetic spelling of draught (compare laughter), from Middle English draught, draght (“that which is pulled; that which is drawn up, a design”), from Old English *dreaht, *dræht, from Proto-West Germanic *drahti, *drahtu, from Proto-Germanic *drahtuz (“a pulling, drawing”). Cognate with Dutch dracht, German Tracht, Icelandic dráttur. By surface analysis, draw + -t.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"From 1767 to 1774 no pale wine was bottled but for immediate use; only draft wine of all kinds was used in the principal taverns, and it was often very bad, not from tricks of the vintners, but from bad management."
— 1863, Thomas George Shaw, Wine, the Vine, and the Cellar, page 152:
"Another positive trend is the increase of quality in draft cider options. Draft cider has often been, and sometimes still is, considered an inferior product by cider traditionalists, who believe a true cider should come in a bottle or[…]"
— 2015 September 14, Jeff Smith, Craft Cider: How to Turn Apples into Alcohol, The Countryman Press, →ISBN:
"Dr Richard Beeching's handwritten draft of his report survives in the National Archives."
— 2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43:
"With these counsels, and many others equally valuable, did Papa Wick fortify Bobby ere that last awful night at Portsmouth when the Officers' Quarters held more inmates than were provided for by the Regulations, and the liberty-men of the ships fell foul of the drafts for India, and the battle raged from the Dockyard Gates even to the slums of Longport, while the drabs of Fratton came down and scratched the faces of the Queen's Officers."
— 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 135:
"As an instance: amongst a draft of young hounds from Earl F itzwilliam's was one, of whom Will Deane, his huntsman, made this remark in his letter, 'that he could not guess at Lord Foley's dislike to the hound called Glider, then sent, which was of the best blood in the country, being got by Mr. Meynell's Glider out of Lord Fitzwilliam's Blossom, and was moreover the most promising young hound he had ever entered;..."
— 1841, Alexander Walker, Intermarriage, page 325:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He nervously opened the envelope containing his ____ notice for military service.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The committee approved the ____ budget.