NYT Dictionary

DRAW

/dɹɑ/
VerbInterjectionNounDRAWGrade 3

Accepted in official NYT Spelling Bee puzzle years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026

Meaning

Senses relating to exerting force or pulling.

Etymology

Origin: Old English

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- Proto-Indo-European *dʰrógʰ-e-ti Proto-Germanic *draganą Proto-West Germanic *dragan Old English dragan Middle English drawen English draw The verb is derived from Middle English dragen, draghen, draue, drauen, drauhen, drawe, drawen, draȝe, draȝen, draȝhenn (“to drag, pull; to draw (out); to attract; to entice, lure; to lead; to make a drawing; to move, travel; etc.”), from Old English dragan (“to drag, draw”), from Proto-West Germanic *dragan (“to carry, haul”), from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to carry, draw, pull”); further etymology uncertain, often said to be from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to drag, pull, run”), but possibly from a non-Indo-European substrate root which is also the source of Latin trahō (“to pull, draw; etc.”). Doublet of drag and draught. The noun is derived from Middle English drau, draue (“action of shooting with a bow”), from drauen, drawen (verb). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian drai, dreeg, dreege (“to carry; to wear”), West Frisian drage (“to carry”), Central Franconian draan, drage, droon (“to bear, carry”), Dutch dragen (“to carry; to wear; to transfer”), German tragen (“to bear, carry; to wear; to support”), Low German dregen (“to carry, take”), Luxembourgish droen (“to carry; to hold, support; to wear; to travel; to fruit”), Yiddish טראָגן (trogn, “to carry, to wear; to be pregnant”), Zealandic draege, draoge (“to carry”), Danish drage (“to draw”), Elfdalian drågå (“to drag, draw, pull”), Faroese and Icelandic draga (“to drag, draw, pull”), Gutnish dräga (“to pull”), Norwegian Bokmål dra, drage (“to drag, draw, pull”), Norwegian Nynorsk dra, draga, drage, drågå, dråggå (“to drag, pull; to leave”), Swedish dra, draga (“to draw, pull; to consume; to leave; to run; to steep”), Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌽 (dragan, “to carry, draw, pull”); also Old Irish droch (“wheel; circlet”), Latin tragō, trahō (“to drag, pull; to trail; to extract; to plunder; to draw out; to protract; to consider, ponder, weigh”), Greek τρέχω (trécho, “to run; to flee; to flow; to execute”), Russian дро́га (dróga, “rail or perch in a cart”), Armenian դուրգ (durg, “to potter’s wheel”).

Synonyms & Antonyms

NYT Puzzle Appearances

Accepted in 7 recorded puzzles:

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