drag

A person dressed as the opposite sex, most often, a male dressed as a female, usually includes big hair, bit make-up, flashy dressing, and high-heels, as well as other pseudo estrus indicators. See also high camp. Females dressed in drag are usually very butch, sporting what is usually perceived as heavily masculine behavior.

What you take off of cigarettes. It's amusing to watch different types of smokers.

Serious old wrinkled-up smokers will suck on a cigarette so hard that it will actually collapse. Non-smoking girls who want to be cool will puff instead of taking a drag. Those who smoke only because they want something in their mouth will often not take a drag, but just let the thing hang in their mouths with the smoke drifting into their bodies.

But the saddest scene is when people do not actually ever take a drag. Have you ever sat near someone in a bar or restaurant who will light a cigarette and then lay it in the ashtray to burn as some sort of noxious incense? These people need to be eliminated.

1. A street, avenue or road. 2. A dance, a party, or other affair featuring homosexuals serving as hostesses. 3. A slow freight train. 4. A man in feminine attire; feminine attire worn by a male.

- american underworld dictionary - 1950

The eighth Keplerian orbital element, specifying the deceleration, (in revolutions per day per day) experienced by low earth orbiting satellites, due to the slowing effect of the upper atmosphere. Drag is measured at the epoch. Expression varies from format to formats. Negative values can indicate tidal forces on higher satellites or observational error. A high drag, (> 10^-4) indicates the need for frequent observation.

<= ^ =>

Rudiment set in direct opposition of the ruff. Drags are more popular because it isn't a logistical nightmare to compare them with other things.

A drag looks like this:

>                > 
R   (ll)   r  |  L   (rr)   l  ||

 |____3____|     |____3____|
 

The firm definition of a drag is an accented note with a diddle following on the opposite hand. I have placed them here in alternating triplet form for clarity.

In aeronautics, the resistance to the motion of a body passing through a fluid, especially through air: applied to an aircraft in flight, it is the component of the resultant aerodynamic force measured parallel to the direction of air flow.

According to The Word Detective, the etymology of "drag" meaning cross-dressing is interesting: despite a widespread urban myth, it does not derive from an Elizabethan theatrical abbreviation of "Dressed as a girl". Rather, it dates back to the late nineteenth century, although it did originate in the theatre with male actors playing female roles. The use of the term relates to the fact that the long dresses worn in theatrical productions contained a lot of fabric and would commonly run down to the ground and trail along on the floor after the actors, in other words they would "drag". Therefore, roles in which men dressed as women came to be known as "drag" roles. In the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, the first use in this sense is dated to 1870.

There are, however, suggestions that the term goes back further than this in gay slang. Judy Grahn (Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds, Boston Press, 1984, 1990 pp 95-6) also links it to hems dragging on the ground, but says there may be another far older source, based on medieval religious practice. Men dressed as women were sometimes pulled or dragged in ceremonial carts in religious rites in Britain, an event which may or may not have some connection to April Fool's Day celebrations. However, this etymology is rather too speculative.

In usage the word "drag" is typically confined to men dressing as women in show business. "Cross-dressing" is the general term for wearing the clothes of the opposite sex.

References: http://www.word-detective.com/back-p.html
http://www.cuis.edu/ftp/STUMPERS-L/STUMPERS-L.1998-01

An album of covers by gay Canadian singer-songwriter-actress K. D. Lang. The title is a double pun: K. D. is in male drag on the cover, but at the same time each song in the collection has some connection to or mention of smoking and cigarettes - of which one takes, as we know, drags. It's also a doubly-naughty statement to make in Los Angeles where Lang now resides - not only is she one of only two openly gay women on the Hollywood circuit, but she is flying straight in the teeth of the anti-smoking orthodoxy which has such a stranglehold on the state of California.

The album is produced to the highest standard by Craig Street and Lang herself. The backings are all smooth, warm and deep like the singer's vocal and the two complement each other perfectly. The rendition of The Air That I Breathe is right up there in the list of best covers ever, and better than either the original or any other cover I've heard so far. Post orgasmic bliss in aural form.

Song list:

• Don't Smoke In Bed
• The Air That I Breathe
• Smoke Dreams
• My Last Cigarette
• The Joker
• Theme From THe Valley Of The Dolls
• Your Smoke Screen
• My Old Addiction
• Till The Heart Caves In
• Smoke Rings
• Hain't It Funny?
• Love Is Like A Cigarette

A drag is a tool used by stone masons and carvers to smooth and level a face of stone. It is used for a similar effect that a plane might be used in carpentry, that is, passed over a surface that has been worked flat enough with coarser tools such as chisels. Its use varies from that of the plane however, in that it is dragged rather than pushed. Drags are usually only used on relatively soft stone such as limestone. In the tradition of Southern English masonry there are two distinct types of drag; the simple 'English drag' and the more complex 'French drag'. It is possible that the use of these two distinct types of drag are also used in Northern France as the mason's trade encompasses both regions as a source of the finest limestones in Northern Europe.

English Drag

The English drag has the appearance of a sheet of steel, sometimes with fine teeth on the working edge. It can vary in size according to the size of the face to be flattened, but for most purposes is usually around 20 centimetres wide. It is made from high carbon steel with a high temper at the working edge, to avoid abrasion of the teeth. English drags can be made from cut sections of old tennon saws provided that they have fine teeth and the set of the saw has been removed. An english drag is used by pulling the toothed surface across the stone sideways (at right angles to the way a saw would be used) so that each tooth will abrade away any high spots. the process is complete when all of the teeth engage with the stone across the whole dragged surface ensuring a flat face. the worked surface will exhibit a series of parallel scores unless a smooth drag has been used to finish the work.

French Drag

The French drag is a development of the English drag, it consists of a short block of wood with a handle, it looks something like a chunky plasterer's float and is approximately the same size. Set into the working face of the drag are several small English drags, each one positioned at a slight angle to each other and to the face of the drag itself. Each working edge of these steel 'scrapers' is set to a uniform depth so that they all make contact when rested upon a flat surface. The french drag is used just as though it were a woodworker's plane, being pulled or pushed over the surface to be levelled. Owing to the angle of the steel edges the drag will make an unbearable screaming noise, a thousand times worse than fingernails scraping on a blackboard, if worked in the wrong direction.

Drag (?), n. [See 3d Dredge.]

A confection; a comfit; a drug.

[Obs.]

Chaucer.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Drag, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dragged (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Dragging (?).] [OE. draggen; akin to Sw. dragga to search with a grapnel, fr. dragg grapnel, fr. draga to draw, the same word as E. draw. See Draw.]

1.

To draw slowly or heavily onward; to pull along the ground by main force; to haul; to trail; -- applied to drawing heavy or resisting bodies or those inapt for drawing, with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing.

Dragged by the cords which through his feet were thrust. Denham.

The grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down. Tennyson.

A needless Alexandrine ends the song That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Pope.

2.

To break, as land, by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow; to draw a drag along the bottom of, as a stream or other water; hence, to search, as by means of a drag.

Then while I dragged my brains for such a song. Tennyson.

3.

To draw along, as something burdensome; hence, to pass in pain or with difficulty.

Have dragged a lingering life. Dryden.

To drag an anchor Naut., to trail it along the bottom when the anchor will not hold the ship.

Syn. -- See Draw.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Drag, v. i.

1.

To be drawn along, as a rope or dress, on the ground; to trail; to be moved onward along the ground, or along the bottom of the sea, as an anchor that does not hold.

2.

To move onward heavily, laboriously, or slowly; to advance with weary effort; to go on lingeringly.

The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun. Byron.

Long, open panegyric drags at best. Gay.

3.

To serve as a clog or hindrance; to hold back.

A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her. Russell.

4.

To fish with a dragnet.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Drag, n. [See Drag, v. t., and cf. Dray a cart, and 1st Dredge.]

1.

The act of dragging; anything which is dragged.

2.

A net, or an apparatus, to be drawn along the bottom under water, as in fishing, searching for drowned persons, etc.

3.

A kind of sledge for conveying heavy bodies; also, a kind of low car or handcart; as, a stone drag.

4.

A heavy coach with seats on top; also, a heavy carriage.

[Collog.]

Thackeray.

5.

A heavy harrow, for breaking up ground.

6. (a)

Anything towed in the water to retard a ship's progress, or to keep her head up to the wind; esp., a canvas bag with a hooped mouth, so used. See Drag sail (below).

(b)

Also, a skid or shoe, for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel

. (c)

Hence, anything that retards; a clog; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment.

My lectures were only a pleasure to me, and no drag. J. D. Forbes.

7.

Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged.

"Had a drag in his walk."

Hazlitt.

8. Founding

The bottom part of a flask or mold, the upper part being the cope.

9. Masonry

A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.

10. Marine Engin.

The difference between the speed of a screw steamer under sail and that of the screw when the ship outruns the screw; or between the propulsive effects of the different floats of a paddle wheel. See Citation under Drag, v. i., 3.

Drag sail Naut., a sail or canvas rigged on a stout frame, to be dragged by a vessel through the water in order to keep her head to the wind or to prevent drifting; -- called also drift sail, drag sheet, drag anchor, sea anchor, floating anchor, etc. -- Drag twist Mining, a spiral hook at the end of a rod for cleaning drilled holes.

 

© Webster 1913.