Drag, feminine attire worn by men. A recent notorious impersonation case led to the publication of the word in that sense.
Drag, a street, or road; BACK-DRAG, back street.
Drag, or THREE MOON, three months in prison.
Drag, THE, a favourite pursuit with fast-hunting sets; as, THE DRAG can be trailed over very stiff country.
Dragging, robbing carts, &c., by means of a light trap which follows behind laden vehicles. Cabs are sometimes eased of trunks in this way, though it is hard to say whether with or without the complicity of the cabmen.
Dragging time, the evening of a country fair day, when the young fellows begin pulling the wenches about.
Draggletail, a dirty, dissipated woman; a prostitute of the lowest class.
Drain, a drink; “to do a DRAIN,” to take a friendly drink—“do a wet;” sometimes called a “common sewer.”
Draw, used in several senses:—1, of a theatre, new piece or exhibition, when it attracts the public and succeeds; 2, to induce—as, “DRAW him on;” 3, of pocket-picking—as, “DRAW his wipe,” “DRAW his ticker.” In sporting parlance it is used with an ellipsis of “trigger,” “I DREW on it as it rose.” In America to “DRAW on a man” is to produce knife or pistol, and to use it as well. Where lethal weapons are used in the States, no man raises his weapon till he means to use it, and a celebrated American writer has recently given a dissertation on the relative advantages of cocking and firing a pistol by an almost simultaneous action as it is raised, and of cocking as the instrument is raised, and of then dropping the muzzle slightly as the trigger is pulled. The former way is more speedy, the latter more effective. “Come, DRAW it mild!” i.e., don’t exaggerate; opposite of “come it strong,” from the phraseology of the bar (of a “public”), where customers desire the beer to be “drawn mild.”
Draw-boy, a cunning device used by puffing tradesmen. A really good article is advertised or ticketed and exposed for sale in the shop window at a very low price, with a view of drawing in customers to purchase other and inferior articles at high prices. These gentry have fortunately found to their cost, on one or two occasions, by means of magisterial decisions, that DRAW-BOYS have drawn for their owners something other than profit.