drake, a dragon. Peele, An Eclogue Gratulatory, ed. Dyce, p. 563. ‘Drake, dragon’, Levins, Manipulus. OE. draca, L. draco, Gk. δράκων.
drane, a drone. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 2, § 3; Skelton, Against the Scottes, 172. ME. drane, ‘fucus’ (Prompt.). The pronunc. of drone in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall (EDD.). OE. drān (drǣn).
drapet, a cloth, a covering. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 9. 27. Cp. Ital. drappetto, dimin. of drappe, cloth.
drasty, worthless, rubbishy; ‘Drasty sluttish geere’, Hall, Sat. v. 2. 49; ‘Drasty ballats’, Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicioso). In several places the s has been misprinted as f; the error originated with Thynne, who, in 1532, twice substituted drafty for drasty in the Prologue to Melibeus: ‘Thy drasty spectre’ (C. T. B. 2113); ‘Thy drasty ryming’ (id. 2120); see NED. OE. dræstig, ‘feculentus’ (Voc. 238. 20).
draw-cut, done by drawing cuts or lots. Stanyhurst, tr. of Virgil, Aeneid i, 515. See [cut] (1).
drawer, a waiter at a tavern. Merry Wives, ii. 2. 165; Romeo, iii. 1. 9. One who draws liquor for guests.
drawer-on, an incitement to appetite. Massinger, Guardian, ii. 3 (Cario).
drawlatch, lit. one who lifts a latch; a sneaking thief. Jacob and Esau, ii. 3 (Esau).
dray, a squirrel’s nest. Drayton, Quest of Cynthia, st. 51; [The squirrel] ‘Gets to the wood, and hides him in his dray’, W. Browne, Brit. Pastorals, bk. i, song 5. A prov. word in general use (EDD.).
drazel, a slattern, slut. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 987. The word is in use in the south of England, in Sussex and Hampshire, see EDD. (s.v. Drazil).