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Draft   /dræft/   Listen
Draft

noun
1.
A document ordering the payment of money; drawn by one person or bank on another.  Synonyms: bill of exchange, order of payment.
2.
A current of air (usually coming into a chimney or room or vehicle).  Synonym: draught.
3.
A preliminary sketch of a design or picture.  Synonym: rough drawing.
4.
A serving of drink (usually alcoholic) drawn from a keg.  Synonyms: draught, potation, tipple.
5.
Any of the various versions in the development of a written work.  Synonym: draft copy.  "The final draft of the constitution"
6.
The depth of a vessel's keel below the surface (especially when loaded).  Synonym: draught.
7.
A regulator for controlling the flow of air in a fireplace.
8.
A dose of liquid medicine.  Synonym: draught.
9.
Compulsory military service.  Synonyms: conscription, muster, selective service.
10.
A large and hurried swallow.  Synonyms: draught, gulp, swig.
11.
The act of moving a load by drawing or pulling.  Synonyms: draught, drawing.



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"Draft" Quotes from Famous Books



... much of Rolfe. Owing to his facile command of language he was peculiarly fitted to draft those proclamations, bombastically worded in the French style, issued and circulated by the Strike Committee—appeals to the polyglot army to withstand the pangs of hunger, to hold out for the terms laid down, assurances that victory was at hand. ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... pocket-books, which filled mine that was getting very empty, for the vales to the servants at my cousin Castlewood's house and buying a horse at Oakhurst have very nearly put me on the necessity of making another draft upon my honoured mother or her London or ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... it could not relieve, and received all overtures with visible reluctance. But the universal voice of the nation called upon it to come to the rescue. Every person of note in commercial politics was called in to advise in the emergency. A rough draft of a contract drawn up by Mr. Walpole was ultimately adopted as the basis of further negotiations, and the public ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds • Charles Mackay

... returned to Dawson City to see and enjoy more fun as he called it. Two weeks later an agent representing the North American Mining Syndicate bought Ben West's claim for fifty thousand dollars, giving him a draft for forty thousand and ten ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge

... mother who was reading the fateful news turned and suddenly clasped a boy to her heart, crying for joy. The last draft of half a million ...
— The Clansman - An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan • Thomas Dixon

... Haldane," said his first acquaintance; "there is an owl-train along at eleven to-night, and you can mail your check or draft on that if you do not care to travel at ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe

... group of young authors, the novelist Heinrich Zschokke, the publisher Heinrich Gessner, and Ludwig Wieland, son of the famous author of Oberon. To these sympathetic friends he read his first tragedy, which, in its earlier draft, had a Spanish setting, as The Thierrez Family or The Ghonorez Family, but which, on their advice, was given a German background. This drama Gessner published for Kleist, under the title The Schroffenstein Family, ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... by Mr. Quiller Couch in an article in the 'Daily News' for March 31, 1902, since recast in his charming volume 'From a Cornish Window', 1906, pp. 86-92. He showed conclusively that 'The Prospect' was 'merely an early draft of 'The Traveller' printed backwards in fairly regular sections.' What had manifestly happened was this. Goldsmith, turning over each page as written, had laid it on the top of the preceding page of MS. and ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith • Oliver Goldsmith

... manly, and knew how to control himself. He struggled against the feeling of weakness, and, while awaiting the time to rejoin his friends, he resolved to write his last wishes. For years his intention had been to leave his entire fortune to his brother-in-law. He, therefore, made a rough draft of his will in that sense, with a pen at first rather unsteady, then quite firm. His will completed, he had courage enough to write two letters, addressed the one to that brother-in-law, the other to his sister. When he had finished his work the hands of the clock ...
— Cosmopolis, Complete • Paul Bourget

... will, bethought himself that it might be as well to secure it. In taking it off the table, however, a folded and much erased sheet of manuscript was disclosed. Recognizing Bellamy's writing, he took it up and commenced to read the draft, for it was nothing else. Its ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard

... Albert G., and Davenport, C. B. Defects Found in Drafted Men. Statistical information compiled from the draft records showing the physical condition of the men registered and examined in pursuance of the requirements of the selective-service act. War Department, U.S. Surgeon General's ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... written by secretaries and signed very shakily, asking me to cooperate with them in suppressing Lalage. O'Donoghue, who was apparently not quite so ill as Vittie was, also suggested that we should publish, over our three names, a dignified rejoinder to the mirth of the press. He enclosed a rough draft of the dignified rejoinder and invited criticism and amendment from me. My proper course of action was obvious enough. I made my nurse reply with a bulletin, dictated by me, signed by her and McMeekin, ...
— Lalage's Lovers - 1911 • George A. Birmingham

... figure introduced. The figures in the crowd are changed in wholesale fashion, and yet the "root idea" in both is the same. An artist, we fancy, would learn much from these contrasts, seeing how strikingly "Phiz" could shift his characters. In the first draft there was not sufficient movement. To the left there was a stout sailor in a striped jacket who was thrusting a pole into the chest of a thin man in check trousers. This, as drawn, seemed too tranquil, and he substituted a stouter, more jovial ...
— Pickwickian Manners and Customs • Percy Fitzgerald

... south-east, if blowing strong, cause the water to break across: but as those winds are fair for entering, no danger is to be apprehended to vessels whose draft of water does not exceed nine or ten feet. Should however circumstances render it imprudent or impracticable to enter, the coast may be cleared on either tack, the indenture of the coast line not being such as to cause it ever to be a dangerous ...
— Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales • John Oxley

... all this fine phrasing, this copious draft from classical sources, was intended to quench the ardor of his curiosity. Diggle's explanation was very lame; the fury depicted on the pursuer's face could scarcely be due to a mere accidental jostling in the street. And Diggle was ...
— In Clive's Command - A Story of the Fight for India • Herbert Strang

... put a couple of stones on the chimney-top, edgewise, like Jack Curtis does. It keeps out the rain without interferin' with the draft," said Uncle ...
— Stories in Light and Shadow • Bret Harte

... was prodded forward to the air-lock. A draft of hot fetid air swept through the corridor, carrying with it the forewarning of unspeakable things to come. And a shriek of mortal terror wafted in from outside by the stinking breeze, told of some poor devil already demoralized. The thick muscles of Luke's ...
— Vulcan's Workshop • Harl Vincent

... the situation. The murder, however, had to come out, and Theobald and his intended, perhaps imprudently, resolved on making a clean breast of it at once. He wrote what he and Christina, who helped him to draft the letter, thought to be everything that was filial, and expressed himself as anxious to be married with the least possible delay. He could not help saying this, as Christina was at his shoulder, and ...
— The Way of All Flesh • Samuel Butler

... Price. I told him so plainly over a Flask of Right Alicant, at a little Feast I had made for him in return for his many Hospitalities, and gave him to understand that he had but to say the word, and Scroppa, the great Goldsmith of Strada Reale, would be glad to cash his Draft for any Sum under Fifty Thousand Ducats. For his Eminence wanted the Cavaliere to be a Friend of France, and France at that time thought that she very much wanted ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 3 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... into small even pieces, and shape with thumb and fingers into round balls. Set close together in a shallow pan, let rise until double the bulk, and bake in a hot oven from ten to twenty minutes. If crusty rolls are desired, set apart in a shallow pan, bake well, and cool in draft. ...
— The International Jewish Cook Book • Florence Kreisler Greenbaum

... a pool's living water, the hunt of the bear, And the sultriness showing the lion is couched in his lair. And the meal, the rich dates yellowed over with gold dust 75 divine, And the locust-flesh steeped in the pitcher, the full draft of wine, And the sleep in the dried river-channel where bulrushes tell That the water was wont to go warbling so softly and well. How good is man's life, the mere living! how fit to employ All the heart and the soul and the senses ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... national leaders had prepared the draft of the constitution under which Roumania is now governed, of which the leading stipulations, along with the names of its framers, will be found in the Appendix (III.), and on June 30 [July 12] it was approved and signed by the Prince, who at the same time took the qualifying oath, first ...
— Roumania Past and Present • James Samuelson

... hundred thousand francs to place in our storehouses the supplies we profess to have secured in remote country places, we shall be absolutely solvent and regarded as blameless. You can trust the soldier who is the bearer of this letter with a draft in my name on a house in Algiers. He is a trustworthy fellow, a relation of mine, incapable of trying to find out what he is the bearer of. I have taken measures to guarantee the fellow's safe return. If you can do nothing, I am ready and ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac

... as there was any probability of they being there. I said to him: "The houses have arrived. I am ready to receive your offer for the six you selected." He said he had no money now. I said I did not want any (which was a white lie). I said I would take a draft on Prosper, Whetmore & Co., of New York city, for $3,000, payable in ninety days, and his note for the balance, on his own time. He looked over the plan of the houses again. He said he would not give but so much. ...
— The Adventures of a Forty-niner • Daniel Knower

... by this time was making almost as much noise as an engine pulling a heavy freight up grade under forced draft, swearing over his trousers, and was offering the cowboy and Hance money to recover them. When they told him this was impossible he tried to get them to sell or hire a pair, but they didn't like the idea of riding into ...
— The Great K. & A. Robbery • Paul Liechester Ford

... Wyatt had been re-elected member of the legislature, however, in spite of Hardin's opposition, and now wished to revenge himself, by ousting Hardin from his office. With this end in view, Wyatt had Douglass draft a bill making the State's attorneys elective by the legislature, instead of subject to the governor's appointment. Since the new governor was a Whig, he could not be used by the Democrats. The bill met with bitter opposition, for it was alleged that it had no other purpose than to vacate Hardin's ...
— Stephen A. Douglas - A Study in American Politics • Allen Johnson

... reaching much farther into the air, underwent convulsive writhings and contortions as an intermittent breeze came over the sheltering treetops and buffeted it in puffs. Almost beneath the balloon six big draft horses stood, hitched in pairs to a stout wagon frame on which a huge wooden ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb

... the 'rest of mankind' that they, the women, cannot exist without owning as personal property an indefinite number of bandboxes. I therefore propose that we at once organize for the purpose; that a committee be appointed to draft resolutions, and report a name for ...
— Town and Country, or, Life at Home and Abroad • John S. Adams

... spiritual education and development. At a time when Ralph Waldo Emerson could write to Thomas Carlyle, "We are all a little wild here with numberless projects of social reform; not a reading man but has a draft of a new community in his waistcoat pocket,"—the Brook Farm project certainly did not appear as impossible a scheme as many others that were in the air. At all events it enlisted the co-operation of men whose subsequent careers show them to have been something ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various

... struggling to the neck in multifarious affairs: it renewed the offer of an allowance, which his improved estate permitted him to announce at the figure of two hundred francs a month; and in case I was in some immediate pinch, it enclosed an introductory draft for forty dollars. There are a thousand excellent reasons why a man, in this self-helpful epoch, should decline to be dependent on another; but the most numerous and cogent considerations all bow to a necessity as stern as mine; and the banks were scarce open ...
— The Wrecker • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... comes a dame across the Square. She's sixteen hands high 'n' will girt according. She belongs in the heavy-draft class ...
— Blister Jones • John Taintor Foote

... as they all operate on the same principle. Two openings should be in the room, one of them near the floor, through which the fresh air may enter, the other higher up, and connected with a shaft or chimney, which producing a draft, may serve to free the room from impure air. The size of these openings may be regulated according to the size of ...
— Composition-Rhetoric • Stratton D. Brooks

... boatmen that summer. Transporting sick and furloughed soldiers, naval and military officers, the friends of the militia men, and pleasure-seekers visiting the forts, kept those of the boatmen who had "escaped the draft," profitably busy. It was not the time for an enterprising man to ...
— Famous Americans of Recent Times • James Parton

... satisfactory and the Khan promised to visit Quetta to pay his salaams to Shah Shujia. Sir Alexander Burnes, who had preceded him, was robbed on the way of the draft of the treaty signed by the Khan. Treacherous Mulla Mahommed Hasan did not fail to impress upon the British that the Khan had given directions to have the treaty stolen, and had, furthermore, prevented Mehrab from proceeding to Quetta. The hostility ...
— Across Coveted Lands - or a Journey from Flushing (Holland) to Calcutta Overland • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... dusty chair from against the wall and arranged himself in the draft between the front and back doors of the little house. He leaned his storm-beaten sombrero against the leg of his chair near his heel, as carefully as if making preparations for quick action in a hostile country, shook ...
— Trail's End • George W. Ogden

... slowly and noiselessly, he reached the entrance to the tunnel and looked in. All was as dark as the grave. A cold draft rushed out over him. He could hear the drip, drip, of water from the roof. At first he thought he saw something moving in the distance, then he was not sure. He decided he would turn back; then curiosity ...
— The Transformation of Job - A Tale of the High Sierras • Frederick Vining Fisher

... Within the office he insisted on the importance of military aeronautics, and when the Committee of Imperial Defence took up the question he was naturally chosen to serve on the committee which prepared a draft organization. Associated with him was Major Duncan Sayre MacInnes, of the Royal Engineers, who had been through the South African War, and at the time of the formation of the Flying Corps was serving with the Military Training Directorate. Only those who worked with him will ever ...
— The War in the Air; Vol. 1 - The Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force • Walter Raleigh

... has drafted an Earthquake Response Plan for the San Francisco Bay area. Annex 2 gives an overview of this draft plan. This is a site-specific plan for response to potential catastrophic earthquake occurrences. The emergency response portion relies upon a decentralized approach which provides for Federal disaster support activities to be ...
— An Assessment of the Consequences and Preparations for a Catastrophic California Earthquake: Findings and Actions Taken • Various

... Brutus and Hamlet (see note, p. 46, l. 65), the treatment of the supernatural, and the development of the revenge motive give strong cumulative evidence that the composition of Julius Caesar is in time very near to that of Hamlet, the first Shakespearian draft of which is now generally conceded to date from the first months of 1602. The diction of Julius Caesar, the quality of the blank verse, the style generally (see below, Versification and Diction), all point ...
— The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar • William Shakespeare

... letter, put in by some other person, projecting above the opening in the bag. Seizing the opportunity he extracted this letter without being seen, and took it home. On examination he found it contained a draft for one thousand dollars. Forging the name of the person on whom it was drawn, he presented the draft at a bank and drew the money, and very soon afterwards proceeded to a distant ...
— Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters - Volume 3 • Various

... of north central Alabama. The principal tributary of the Alabama is the Canaba (about 200 m. long), which enters it about 10 m. below Selma. Of the rivers which form the Alabama, the Coosa crosses the mineral region of Alabama, and is navigable for light-draft boats from Rome, Georgia (where it is formed by the junction of the Oostenaula and Etowah rivers), to about 117 m. above Wetumpka (about 102 m. below Rome and 26 m. below Greensport), and from Wetumpka to its junction ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... draft arrived, and the party were to leave for Halifax the next day in the Cunard steamer. La Salle had invited Captain Randall to spend the evening in a private parlor of the hotel, and at eight o'clock he was ushered in, and found no other guest save his first mate, ...
— Adrift in the Ice-Fields • Charles W. Hall

... the M8 cluster answers to this description, but even if we undertook to account for its existence by a supposition like the above, the black gaps would remain unexplained, unless one could make a further draft on the imagination and suggest that the stars had been thrown into a vast eddy, or system of eddies, whose vortices appear as dark holes. Only a maelstrom-like motion could keep such a funnel open, for without regard to the ...
— Curiosities of the Sky • Garrett Serviss

... seat of the parlor car heard the request of a fellow-passenger directly opposite asking the porter to open the window, and, scenting a draft, she immediately drew a cloak ...
— Good Stories from The Ladies Home Journal • Various

... busily employed in the time of inflation. What becomes of them? Nay, we know that well enough just now. But what we don't know, or don't choose to know, is, that this reserve army of labour is an absolute necessity for commercial war; if OUR manufacturers had not got these poor devils whom they could draft on to their machines when the demand swelled, other manufacturers in France, or Germany, or America, would step in and take the ...
— Signs of Change • William Morris

... had finished the draft, I gave it to Berry. The latter read it through, nodding solemn approval. Then he repaired to the writing-table and copied my sentences, word for word, on to a sheet ...
— Berry And Co. • Dornford Yates

... broke up soon afterward. Connel remained with Strong and Walters to work out the details of the mission and to draft a top-secret report to the Grand Council ...
— The Revolt on Venus • Carey Rockwell

... about it. You'd never regret it. I'm a very different Frank to the silly ass you knew in the old Haslemere days. Now here's a five pound note to cover the cost of a full cable to say "yes," and when you'll be ready to start. When I get your answer—somehow I feel it'll be "yes"—I'll send you a draft on a London bank to pay for a suitable trousseau and your passage from London to Cape Town, and of course I'll come and meet you there, where we can be married. I shan't sleep properly till I get ...
— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... "Then draft me a bill with that object, Mr. Christian," said the Governor, and the meeting ended with cheers for His Excellency, shouts for Philip, and mutterings of contempt from the trawlers. "Didn't think there was a man on the island could spake like it."—"But hasn't your fancy-man been ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine

... around. "Professor!" he called to the old figure standing bowed beneath the hole in the ceiling. "There's a draft blowing from somewhere! Do ...
— Astounding Stories, April, 1931 • Various

... instead of four having been harnessed to the coach, on account of the difficult roads and heavier draft, a voice from the outside asked: "Is everybody in?"—To which a voice replied from the ...
— Mademoiselle Fifi • Guy de Maupassant

... shame and mortification, when the door opened, a man walked in, and gave Crawley a note and vanished. Crawley opened the note; it contained a check drawn by Meadows, and these words: "Lend W. F. the money at ten per cent on his acceptance of your draft at two months." ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... "he was their guest. And the Lady Jane arranged it, you say, Kapolski? Draft horses could not have been strong enough to pull me away from London had she planned for my pleasure. You must discover the fault in him, my dear Quentin, and hold him to account for a very reprehensible act." Ugo knew that Dickey was listening, and the first point in ...
— Castle Craneycrow • George Barr McCutcheon

... went to the length of asserting that, before any bill of importance was framed, a rough draft was sent down from the President's office and simply put into form and voted a law by ...
— Four Years in Rebel Capitals - An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death • T. C. DeLeon

... deaf to her pleas. Between them, they carried down every forlorn animal—Sarah's tastes ran to the lame and the halt and the blind,—and then Doctor Hugh opened the window wide (Sarah had insisted on keeping both windows closed lest a draft strike the sick kittens), kissed the back of his small sister's head, for she persistently refused to turn her face toward him, and snapped off the light, leaving Sarah to cry herself to sleep. Rosemary and Shirley, ...
— Rosemary • Josephine Lawrence

... between the leaves of a copy of "Pickwick," and it stood on a shelf in his bedroom. One night, six months before, to alter a small bequest, he had carried the will up-stairs and written a rough draft of the new codicil. And then, merely because he was sleepy and disinclined to struggle with a combination lock, he had stuck the will in the book he was reading. He intended the first thing the next morning to put it back in the safe. But the first thing the ...
— Somewhere in France • Richard Harding Davis

... his fierce struggle to keep his lungs from gulping in a draft of that noxious atmosphere, and with the unconscious form of the girl draped limply over his left arm, Costigan leaped toward the portal of the nearest lifeboat. Orchestra instruments crashed to the floor and ...
— Triplanetary • Edward Elmer Smith

... the storm came at intervals the old dog's mournful cry. The lamp on the table, turned low though it was, flickered in the draft, and the storm mourned incessantly in the pipe of the Klondike heater. Through all the other sounds came the rapid breathing of the little girl as she battled bravely with the outgoing tide. Martha and Mrs. Cavers sat on the ...
— The Second Chance • Nellie L. McClung

... for the pencil of Muirhead Bone. I wanted to get a comfortable place. There was only one place on the bare stones, and when I lay down there my bones ached abominably, and it was very cold. Through an aperture in the window came a keen draft and I could see in a square of moonlit sky a glinting star. It was not much of a cellar. A direct hit on the Hotel du Rhin would make a nasty mess in this vaulted room and end a game of cards. After fifteen minutes I became restless, and decided that the room upstairs, after ...
— Now It Can Be Told • Philip Gibbs

... consultations of Caleb's draft, the cutting-out was done—really a very simple matter. Then the patching was to ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton

... a permanent judicial tribunal for the determination of international causes. There was very full discussion of the proposal for such a court and a general agreement was finally reached in favor of its creation. The Conference recommended to the signatory Powers the adoption of a draft upon which it agreed for the organization of the court, leaving to be determined only the method by which the judges should be selected. This remaining unsettled question is plainly one which time and ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... a good description of it; but evidently all distinguishing marks had been removed from it. It was a craft of perhaps thirty-five feet, slender, of light draft, and quite certainly built for speed. There was no name at either bow or stern, and the boat was painted a muddy gray that made it almost invisible at a little distance, so well did the color harmonize with the color of the harbor waters. Lew had watched ...
— The Secret Wireless - or, The Spy Hunt of the Camp Brady Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss

... you may be quite certain," replied the commander of the sea defence; "if we have any battery on this Fox-hill, it shall be constructed and manned by blue-jackets. I have a large draft of them now at discretion. Every man in Springhaven will lend a hand, if paid for it. It would take at least a twelvemonth to get it done from Woolwich. A seaman does a thing before a landsman ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

... third person. I have been watching the thing, Dick, and am not such a fat old fool as you take me for. It was neither Miste nor Devar who cashed that draft. If you catch Miste you will probably catch some one else, too, some knight-errant of finance, or I am ...
— Dross • Henry Seton Merriman

... for the feeble-minded. Some of the orphan kids visited me and I got them to bring my little set of drawing tools. I was tinkering with these when Mister Lannarck came in. He looked at some of my sketches and asked if I could draft a plan in true proportions. I told him I thought I could, if I had the correct measurements. He put ...
— David Lannarck, Midget - An Adventure Story • George S. Harney

... 1795 desired a guarantee that no party, however determined, should thus destroy its enemies by a single law, and unite supreme legislative and executive power in its own hands. With the object of dividing authority, the executive was, in the new draft-constitution, made independent of the legislature, and the legislature itself was broken up into two chambers. A Directory of five members, chosen by the Assemblies, but not responsible except under ...
— History of Modern Europe 1792-1878 • C. A. Fyffe

... two individuals, Messrs. Paccard and Roger (charming names for confidants, are not they?), and which I beg you to make known as quickly as possible to your brother. It concerns a little scrap of paper (which these rogues of bankers call a draft, I believe), for a thousand francs, by which Messrs. Paccard and Roger are authorized by my signature, which is at the bottom, to demand the above sum of a thousand francs (which my mother entrusted to M. Pavy in Paris) from ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, "From Paris to Rome: - Years of Travel as a Virtuoso" • Franz Liszt; Letters assembled by La Mara and translated

... by Governor Hancock relative to the Castle guard proving insufficient, I addressed a Memorial to the General Court. Their permission to engage volunteers from that corps, and a sum of specie granted for the purpose, the volunteer draft from the continental troops, and the unremitting exertions of General Lincoln, have put us at length barely in condition to go to sea. I shall embark today, and expect Captain Barry will sail with the first fair wind. I have to acknowledge ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. IX • Various

... to his bedroom, to draft a rough copy of a letter intended to be the most scathing communication which had ever passed through the post; and Bridgie, very white and shaken, seated herself on a chair by her ...
— The Love Affairs of Pixie • Mrs George de Horne Vaizey

... of the gases might not act as a damper on the fire, Dr. Allen recommended the use of a pair of bellows for forcing the sluggish vapor through the flue. This is probably the first suggested use of forced draft. In forming an estimate of the quantity of fuel lost up the stack, Dr. Allen probably made the first ...
— Steam, Its Generation and Use • Babcock & Wilcox Co.

... used by the Congress with those used by the Virginia Convention and those used by Jefferson in the first draft, shows how much the judgment of the Congress was clarified by the great debate which occurred between May 15 and June 10, 1776, when the wording above quoted ...
— "Colony,"—or "Free State"? "Dependence,"—or "Just Connection"? • Alpheus H. Snow

... certain inalienable rights"; "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"; "the origin and basis of government is in the consent of the governed,"—these and many more familiar and striking expressions are from Locke. It is interesting to note that he was appointed to draft a constitution for the new province of Carolina; but his work was rejected,—probably because it was too democratic for the age ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long

... Such was the draft as delivered to the Secretary of State; "and as such it was sent," said Sully, "unless Villeroy changed it, as he had a great desire ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... alterations that its original promoters lost all interest in its passing; and at the final stage, it was rejected, as well as I remember, without a division. At all events, it was rejected, and, I believe, with the concurrence of Mr. Duffy, who afterwards published the original draft in ...
— The Felon's Track • Michael Doheny

... appreciation naturally encouraged her to speak a little of herself. And one evening she confessed that she, too, had been trying to write. On another evening she brought some sheets of manuscript—the draft of the early chapters of "Marie Claire"—and read them aloud. She read, I am told, very well. The reception was enthusiastic. One can imagine the ecstatic fervour of these young men, startled by the apparition of such a shining talent. She must continue the writing ...
— Marie Claire • Marguerite Audoux

... no fire in the stove, and the wooden clock on the mantel behind it was stopped; the wind had carried in some red leaves from the maple near the door, and these were swept against the farther wall, where they lay palpitating in the draft. ...
— A Pair of Patient Lovers • William Dean Howells

... or revengeful; no, they never would say that. When he had taken out all the surface gold and put the mine in working order, he would send them each a draft for a thousand dollars. Of course, if they were ever ill or poor he would do more. One of the first, the very first things he should do would be to send them each a handsome gun and tell them that he only asked in return the old-fashioned rifle that once was his. Looking ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte

... times as hot as boiling water,—you could smelt copper. Of course the furnace of a real smelting factory will hold tons and tons of copper ore and has all sorts of improvements, but after all it is in principle only an oven with wood and ore and draft. Another sort of furnace, which is better for some kinds of ore, has a grate for the fire and a bed above ...
— Diggers in the Earth • Eva March Tappan

... the stage] I often wonder: suppose we could begin life over again, knowing what we were doing? Suppose we could use one life, already ended, as a sort of rough draft for another? I think that every one of us would try, more than anything else, not to repeat himself, at the very least he would rearrange his manner of life, he would make sure of rooms like these, ...
— Plays by Chekhov, Second Series • Anton Chekhov

... one of the clerks to his friend. "A widow, too! Chance for you, Tom," returned the other; and, presently, from out the sacred presence came another clerk with a request for "a draft on Sydney for three thousand, less premium", and bearing a cheque signed "Sarah Carr" for L200, which he "took" in notes, and so ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke

... sitting-room and, seating herself at her bureau, began to draft a ducal manifesto. The door opened, and, to her surprise, not the Secret Service officer whom she had thought to recognise, but a very inferior official, a mere spy, entered. He walked in without removing his hat, and came ...
— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay

... of Crime (Ireland) Act, 1882, 45 & 46 Vict. c. 25, s. 16, giving power to a magistrate where an offence had been committed to summon and examine witnesses, even though no person is charged with the offence, formed, I believe, part of the draft ...
— England's Case Against Home Rule • Albert Venn Dicey

... boys on the island, John had a crude dock constructed, and as the Pioneer was of light draft, this was not a difficult thing to do, so that the passengers could land from the ship directly ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Adventures on Strange Islands • Roger Thompson Finlay

... an excursion into dramatic literature at about this time, as the following draft of a letter, without date, but evidently written to the celebrated actor Charles ...
— Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals - In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Samuel F. B. Morse

... details that, before the occupants of the cabin turned in for the night, everything had been arranged. White had been somewhat disappointed when the missionary said that, having no funds in St. Johns, he would be obliged to give a sight draft on New York in payment for the goods. This slight annoyance was, however, speedily smoothed away by Cabot, who offered to cash the draft immediately upon their arrival in St. Johns, where, he said, he had ample funds for the purpose. It was ...
— Under the Great Bear • Kirk Munroe

... draft at Harper's, and was told there that the soldiers were all quiet upon promise of pay. Thence to St. James's Park, back to Whitehall, where in a guard-chamber I saw about thirty or forty 'prentices of the City, who were taken at twelve o'clock last night and brought prisoners hither. Thence ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... ladies, in a very moralizing strain, to observe that our pleasures in this world are always to be paid for, and that we often purchase them at a great disadvantage, giving ready-monied actual happiness for a draft on the future, that may not be honoured. Witness myself, at this present hour. Because I am to hope for the satisfaction of seeing you at Woodston on Wednesday, which bad weather, or twenty other causes, ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... of the banking system of the 19th century. For details see BANKS AND BANKING: Law, and BILL OF EXCHANGE. The word check,[1] of which "cheque" is a variant now general in English usage, signified merely the counterfoil or indent of an exchequer bill, or any draft form of payment, on which was registered the particulars of the principal part, as a check to alteration or forgery. The check or counterfoil parts remained in the hands of the banker, the portion given ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 - "Chtelet" to "Chicago" • Various

... Count Otto, the French Ambassador at Vienna; in fact, the original draft of the two papers, that is to say, the judgment of the metropolitan tribunal, was forwarded to him. The Ambassador spoke about it to the Emperor Francis, to satisfy that monarch's scruples, but he did not show him the papers themselves, and three days after the ratification of the ...
— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand

... American Boxer, is to be charged with "draft-dodging." The other charge of COCHRAN-dodging ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, March 10th, 1920 • Various

... Jane, ain't so respectful as she'd arter be to her old grandma'am. I often tell her that when she gets to have children of her own, she'll know what tis to be a pilgrim an' a sojourner on the arth without nobody to consider her feelin's. Your cider is putty good." Here the old lady took a large draft, and set down the mug with a sigh of satisfaction. "It's jest the thing to take when a body's tired. It goes to the right spot. Cynthy Ann's husband didn't have none made this year. I wonder ef your ma would sell a ...
— Frank's Campaign - or the Farm and the Camp • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... cleverer fellow than Pope never commenced author. He was in his own mundane way as determined to be a poet, and the best going, as John Milton himself. He took pains to be splendid—he polished and pruned. His first draft never reached the printer—though he sometimes said it did. This ought, I think, to endear him to us in these hasty days, when authors high and low think nothing of emptying the slops of their minds over their readers, without so much as ...
— Obiter Dicta - Second Series • Augustine Birrell

... of the Caroline, or Right o' Sarch? or what national subject is on the carpet to-day? Howsundever,' sais I, 'let the charge be what it will, slugs, rifle-bullets, or powder, go I must, that's a fact.' So I tips him a shot right off; here's the draft, Sir; it's in ...
— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... from England and took the command. Confidence was at once restored, for he was a fine old soldier, and had been engaged in every struggle in India from the time of Clive; but with the whole country in the hands of Hyder, it was impossible to obtain draft animals or carts, and it was not until the middle of January that he was able to move. On the 19th he reached Chingleput, and on the 20th sent off a thousand men to obtain possession of the fort of Carangooly. It was a strong ...
— The Tiger of Mysore - A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib • G. A. Henty

... where the Emperor himself remained invisible, Metternich and his assembled Council received the deputation in state. The Council urged the aged Prime Minister to grant the demanded concession. At length he withdrew into an adjoining chamber to draft an order annulling the censorship of the press. While he was thus engaged the cry was raised, "Down with Metternich!" The deputies in the Council Chamber peremptorily demanded his dismissal. When the old statesman returned ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson

... draft a permanent Constitution, I have no doubt that it will have to be federal, allowing a very large measure of autonomy to the provinces, and reserving for the Central Government few things except customs, army and navy, foreign relations and railways. ...
— The Problem of China • Bertrand Russell

... is too delicate to travel, and who is miserable when I am away for long. Take this pencil and paper. Let us leave off dreaming for a little time and give ourselves up to technicalities. I want to draft a new first act and a new last one, not so very different from your version and yet with changes which I want to explain as we go on. Bring your chair a little nearer—so. Now take down ...
— The Cinema Murder • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... letter, or rather the first draft of it, is not much more artistic in appearance than the foregoing. He is evidently in the same class in orthography with his friend, Master Gillander, and I do not doubt that, under careful culture, he may emulate the various virtues of his friend, and become, in time, an accomplished ...
— Punchinello, Vol. II. No. 38, Saturday, December 17, 1870. • Various

... the rough draft was copied by Emmeline. She wrote a very pretty hand, and had no difficulty whatever about punctuation. A careful letter, calculated for the eye of refinement; it supplied only the indispensable details of the writer's position, and left terms for ...
— The Paying Guest • George Gissing

... money. It came from friends, known and unknown, at home and abroad, who were interested in her and in her brave and lonely struggle. There was scarcely a mail that did not bring her a cheque or bank-draft or Post-Office order. "It often happens," she said once, "that when the purse is empty, immediately comes a new instalment. God is superbly kind in the matter of money. I do not know how to thank Him. It is just wonderful how we ever fail in our trust ...
— Mary Slessor of Calabar: Pioneer Missionary • W. P. Livingstone

... bank, he let himself into his rooms and locked the door. He stooped to open the draft of the stove when a sound stopped him halfway. The cashier stood rigid, still crouched, waiting for a repetition of the noise. It came once more—the low, dull ...
— The Yukon Trail - A Tale of the North • William MacLeod Raine

... and best form of expression to all he had to say; we find erasures and emendations in almost every line. He proceeded, as we shall see, in the same way in the sketches for letters to Giuliano de' Medici, and what can be more natural, I may ask, than to find the draft of a letter thus altered and improved when it is to contain an account of a definite subject, and when personal interests are in the scale? The finished copies as sent off are not known to exist; if we had these instead of the rough drafts, we ...
— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci

... mount the stairs. It was surely very disagreeable for the wind to extinguish her lamp at that instant, just at the turning of stairs, and she could not account for it, as none of the windows were open, and there was no trace of a draft. However, it was an undeniable fact, the light was out and she was in total darkness—not even a star was to be seen in the clouded sky. It was, indeed, true that Thusnelda was so accustomed to the way that it mattered little ...
— Old Fritz and the New Era • Louise Muhlbach

... a more satisfactory polity for the Church, and the Assembly nominated some of its members as assessors to confer with it and report the proposals that might be made. At the same time it appointed a committee of its own, composed of its most competent and trusted men, to draft a constitution for its approval. This committee was reappointed from year to year; the result of its labours being the 'Second Book of Discipline,' which was laid before the Assembly and adopted by it at its meeting in the Magdalene ...
— Andrew Melville - Famous Scots Series • William Morison

... not the existing order of things, and if it were really such, we should not have the race-horses of England; we should not have our great draft horses, so clumsy and so different from the first named, for nature herself has not produced their like; we should not, for the same reason, have terrier dogs with bow legs, greyhounds so swift in running, water-spaniels, etc.; we should not ...
— Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution - His Life and Work • Alpheus Spring Packard

... Langdon, Haven, and Foster be a Committee of this Convention to consider and report on the above. Said committee laid the following draft before the Convention, which was unanimously voted ...
— The History of Dartmouth College • Baxter Perry Smith

... off abruptly; stared before him, as though the fumes of wine were at last beginning to rise to his head; toyed with his glass and drank it quickly at a draft. "What an alluring will-o'-the-wisp ...
— Under the Rose • Frederic Stewart Isham

... somewhat dingy quarters in the hotel, in preparing for their sallying out upon a shopping expedition in the city, an event of a certain interest to plantation dwellers. Mrs. Ellison paused in her own operations to extract from a hand-bag a flask, wherefrom she helped herself to a generous draft. Miss Lady caught ...
— The Law of the Land • Emerson Hough

... represented in state in the great courtyard of the ducal palace at Ferrara, on the occasion of the marriage of Lucrezia d' Este with Annibale Bentivogli, on January 21, 1487[162]. Like the Orfeo, the piece exhibits traces of its origin in the religious shows, though, unlike the original draft of Poliziano's play, it is divided into five acts each of some length, and is provided with regular choruses on the classical model. In spite of its inferiority to the Orfeo in lyric power and its possibly even greater deficiency from a dramatic point of view, it will be worth ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... used to say that for centuries the Athenians had lived in discord; the nobles (Eupatrids) who were proprietors of the soil oppressed the peasants on their estates; creditors held their debtors as slaves. To reestablish order the Athenians commissioned Solon, a sage, to draft a code of laws ...
— History Of Ancient Civilization • Charles Seignobos

... opposite to the grafting brute from whose jurisdiction I had fled; a promoted town-marshal, like John Runnels of Glendale; a shrewd-eyed, kindly old man who heard my story patiently and gave me a word of encouragement that was like a draft of cold water ...
— Branded • Francis Lynde



Words linked to "Draft" :   negotiable instrument, air current, textual matter, regulator, study, draft copy, inland bill, quaff, swallow, enter, postal order, military machine, armed services, time bill, write, updraft, compose, drink, money order, enlist, acceptance, war machine, rough drawing, armed forces, enrol, pull, depth, design, military, deepness, sight bill, mobilization, bank check, raise, enroll, indite, militarization, pulling, dose, muster, foreign bill, wind, deglutition, inscribe, dividend warrant, penning, recruit, order of payment, authorship, dosage, sketch, plan, pen, levy en masse, sight draft, cheque, check, current of air, time draft, levy, trade acceptance, foreign draft, conscription, mobilisation, text, composition, writing, banker's acceptance, militarisation, discharge, draft dodger



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