Draft, a. 1.
Pertaining to, or used for, drawing or pulling (as vehicles,
loads, etc.). Same as Draught.
2. Relating to, or characterized by, a draft,
or current of air. Same as Draught.
☞ The forms draft and draught, in the senses
above-given, are both in approved use.
Draft box, Draft engine,
Draft horse, Draft net,
Draft ox, Draft tube. Same as
Draught box, Draught engine, etc. See under
Draught.
Draft (?), v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Drafted; p. pr. & vb. n.
Drafting.] 1. To draw the outline of; to
delineate.
2. To compose and write; as, to draft
a memorial.
3. To draw from a military band or post, or
from any district, company, or society; to detach; to
select.
Some royal seminary in Upper Egypt, from whence they
drafted novices to supply their colleges and
temples.
Holwell.
4. To transfer by draft.
All her rents been drafted to
London.
Fielding.Draft (drȧft), n. [The same word
as draught. OE. draught, draht, fr. AS.
dragan to draw. See Draw, and cf. Draught.]
1. The act of drawing; also, the thing drawn.
Same as Draught.
Everything available for draft
burden.
S. G. Goodrich.
2. (Mil.) A selecting or detaching of
soldiers from an army, or from any part of it, or from a military
post; also from any district, or any company or collection of
persons, or from the people at large; also, the body of men thus
drafted.
Several of the States had supplied the deficiency by
drafts to serve for the year.
Marshall.
3. An order from one person or party 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.
A. Hamilton.
4. An allowance or deduction made from the
gross weight of goods. Simmonds.
5. A drawing of lines for a plan; a plan
delineated, or drawn in outline; a delineation. See
Draught.
6. The form of any writing as first drawn up;
the first rough sketch of written composition, to be filled in, or
completed. See Draught.
7. (Masonry) (a) A
narrow border left on a finished stone, worked differently from the
rest of its face. (b) A narrow border
worked to a plane surface along the edge of a stone, or across its
face, as a guide to the stone-cutter.
8. (Milling) The slant given to the
furrows in the dress of a millstone.
9. (Naut.) Depth of water necessary to
float a ship; the depth below the water surface to which the bottom
of a ship sinks when bearing a specific load. See
Draught.
10. A current of air. Same as
Draught.