Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) a form of ‘rod’, whereby robbers ‘fish’ items from a shop window; then a tool for breaking the lock of a safe.

1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 255: The Drag, which is, having a Hook fasten’d to the end of a Stick, with which they drag any thing out of a Shop Window in a dark Evening.
1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 233: A simple tool, but very powerful and noiseless in its work, is the ‘drag’.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 247: Drag. burglar’s tool.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 403: Drag [...] Yegg’s tool used to pull out spindle of safe.

(b) the robbery of vehicles, initially horse-drawn, subseq. motorized; also attrib.; thus done/lagged for a drag, convicted of robbing a wagon or cart; by ext. the actual robber.

1791		‘Flash Lang.’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 19: A drag, one that robs a waggon on the high way.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: The cove was lagged for a drag. The man was transported for stealing something out of a waggon.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 237: The drag, is the game of robbing carts, waggons, or carriages, either in town or country, of trucks, bale-goods, or any other property. Done for a drag, signifies convicted for a robbery of the before-mentioned nature.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 189/1: At the Drag. Stealing from backs of vans in transit.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 92: But since you’ve been out you’ve learned new names for the game, / such as till-tapping, the carpet, the rope, and the drag, [all con games] which all leads up to one thing.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 71: He was an old ‘Drag’ man, with his bit getting short.

(c) (US Und.) a theft; also attrib.

1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 205: The pirate seemed to chuckle at so successful a drag.
1828		N.-Y. Enquirer 30 May 2/4: Catherine Roff, who was implicated in an extensive robbery, last year, was brought up, charged with having made a wholesale drag, at the house of Mr. Jonathan Fay, 66 William-st., where she was a servant.
1903		H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 92: ‘Drag’ work is a rather complicated kind of stealing.

(d) to commit a street robbery as part of a team.

1965

H. Williamson Hustler 118: [W]hen your [sic] doin’ the drag you’re never suppose to have no two guys or three guys walkin’ down the streets together. You’re suppose to have them located so that all of you meet at one given spot.

(a) a ferryboat.

1739

Proceedings Old Bailey 7 June 94/1: We helped the Ferry Man to pull up the Drag. [the Ferry-Boat] and we crossed the Water to Lambeth.

(b) a one- or two-horse wagon or cart.

a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: dragg a waggon, or cart.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1822		Egan ‘A Modern Mill’ Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. (1827) 220: Coster-mongers in drags went to witness the slaughter.
1839		C.J. Lever Harry Lorrequer 71: No sooner did he join that popinjay set of fellows [...] he turned out, what he calls, a four-in-hand drag.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 232: They had at least sixteen six-pounders, all loaded, and pointed at the drag [...] in the event of us refusing to give Jack a lift.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 30 Sept. 2/4: A cab-driver [...] charging sixpence above his legitimate fare, to the great danger, detriment, and inconvenience of the purse and person of a live Magistrate of the Territory [...] who had condescended to patronise his ‘drag’.
1851		R.S. Surtees Young Tom Hall (1926) 72: We must have the drag overhauled [...] and I vote we have the ballet-girl [...] painted out and a rattling Fox with a ‘tallyho’ painted in.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 98: Jumping Jack, who was done last week, for heaving a peter from a drag.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: An old English drag, imported by General Bamboo, and with which the old general ‘stuck’ the Nuwab when be went home.
1861		Hills & Plains I 8: He took a four-anna share in a drag.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 121/2: Tom ’el cum wi’ a good ‘prad’ and ‘drag,’ an’ we’ll aul start off tugether.
1871		Hamilton Spectator (Vic.) 7 Jan. 1/7: If he possesses a vehicle, it is invariably a ‘trap,’ or ‘drag;’ and he no longer drives: he ‘tools it’.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 63: Up one of these openings we drew the drag.
1887		‘’Arry at the Sea-Side’ Punch 10 Sept. 111/2: Wots the hodds if yer rides in a kerredge, or drives in a double-’orse drag.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 20 May 3/1: After listening to your ravings from the box-seat of a drag [etc.].
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 20: They’ve got drag startin’ from the ‘Red Lion’ that’s goin’ down ter Chingford.
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 158: It was the drag, and not a sulky. Harold occupied the driver’s seat, and the other occupants were all ladies.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 144: He was in the same drag with Bodio and Nettie Mulholland.

(c) a type of stagecoach, drawn by four horses, with seats on top; thus attrib.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress xiii: Thespis having first performed in a drag. [...] The Flash term for a cart.
1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 9: The drag Fiddler can toss off a quartern of ‘Max’ without making a wry mug.
1829		Vidocq Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 75: You should have had a drag to whisk off the swag in.
1833		Bell’s Life in London 7 Apr. 3/1: They were accompanied by a respectable train of ‘swell drags’.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Feb 2/6: [heading] A cheap commopdious and slap-up drag.
1849		Thackeray Pendennis I 180: So reckless was his driving and frequent the accidents and upsets out of his drag.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 127: Verdant gave up his name and that of his college with a thrill of terror, and nearly fell off the drag from fright.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act III: Lark, lush, and a latch-key – a swell rig-out, and lots of ready in the pockets – a drag at Epsom and a champagne lunch on the hill!
1871		C. Money Knocking About in N.Z. 10: That worthy professional [...] persisted in keeping his trap crawling at a slow pace exactly in front of the four-in-hand drag that Ramsey was driving.
1879		‘’Arry on the Road’ Punch 9 Aug. 83/1: ’Twas a bit of a beanfeast, you see, and our lot tooled it down in a drag.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Nov. 15/2: [A] lovely spring morning, with the sun tooling his golden ‘drag’ [...] o’erhead.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 10/3: He starts for his scholastic class / Upon the Sydney shores; / When at the ferry he is met / All by a drag and four!
1886		Sporting Times 30 Jan. 7/1: There are some very pretty champagne and chicken practice to be made at the numerous drags there [i.e. Ascot race course] assembled.
1894		G. du Maurier Trilby 232: On the box seat of a nobleman’s drag.
1905		‘Sam Holt’ ‘Banjo’ Paterson Old Bush Songs 72: They say you’ve ten thousand per annum, Sam Holt, / In England, a park and a drag.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 8 Apr. 4/8: We started away from the worf in a four-’orse drag.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 7 Sept, 14/2: They Say [...] That Lardy M. did not set the alarm, and was boo-peep [sic] when the drag left .
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 83: Young Butler was detaching the drag.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(d) a hand-cart.

1852

Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: Sooner than murder my carcass vith that there faik, I’d scrape about the streets vith a drag (hand cart).

(e) a prison van, a Black Maria.

1981

(con. 1900–30) A. Harding in Samuel East End Und. 282: The drag – The Black Maria. Prison van. ‘The bleeding drag’s a long time coming,’ you might say when you were waiting in the cells to be taken to prison.

(f) a motorcar, thus vehicles in general.

1930		(con. 1910–20s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 118: Drag ... vehicle.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 63: To-day smash and grab bandits call a stolen motor car a ‘crooked drag.’ A motor car genuinely owned by a raider is a ‘straight drag’ [...] A ‘bizzie drag’ is a flying squad car from Scotland Yard.
1958		F. Norman Bang To Rights 188: All I want is enough money to live on and a nice place to live and maybe a little drag.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 181: ‘Get in the drag’ means get in the car.

(g) (US tramp) a (slow) freight-train.

1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 388: A freight is called a drag. Dise-drag (merchandise), silk-drag, coal-drag, fruit-drag and slow drag result from this word.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 204: Drag – A long, slow-moving freight train.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 61/2: Drag. [...] 3. (Hobo) A slow freight train.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 13: I want to get into Saskatoon in time to catch a drag to Winnipeg in the afternoon.

(h) a van.

1938		F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 330: drag (a) : A van.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 181: Drag [...] (b) a van.

(a) a street; also attrib.; thus main drag n. (1), the main street; back drag, back street.

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 33: DRAG, a street, or road; back-drag, back street.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict.
1886		W. Newton Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 8: Drag ... Name of a Street.
1895		J. London ‘’Frisco Kid’s Story’ in High School Aegis X (15 Feb.) 2–3: He wuz de swiftest scrapper on de drag.
1901		J. London ‘Local Color’ Complete Short Stories (1993) I 688: The drag, my dear fellow, is merely the street.
1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 390: A street is a drag (from the railroad term).
1938		‘Sl. among Nebraska Negroes’ in AS XIII:4 Dec. 316/2: Twenty-fourth Street in Omaha is known as the drag or the main stem.
1949		F. Brown Dead Ringer 103: Want a drink [...] At the tavern a block down the drag, where we were the other night?
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 61/2: Drag. 1. A street, avenue, or road.
1960		G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 5: Build the loveliest drag strip in history and put our hot-rodders on it.
1970		San Diego Sailor 28: After a while he told me we were on a drag they call the Strip.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 1358: He parked on the main drag.
1993		L. Rodríguez Always Running (1996) 63: A straight drag south on the San Gabriel River freeway.
1999		Scotland on Sun. Mag. 7 Nov. 16: Friday night down the drag.
2010		L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] The main shopping drag, the Via España, wasn’t very big and had nothing on Rodeo Drive.

(b) a long distance, which will make for tedious travelling.

1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 9 Oct. 301/1: Very few Lunnuners were present, it being too long a drag for the toddlers.
1882		Bristol Magpie 22 June 19/1: A pretty drag a chap to bring, / To see a sanguinary spring.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 444: Drag, (2) A long, disagreeable ride.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 33: It’s a long drag from Tijuana and one of the dullest drives in the state.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 100: To deaden the long drag back I bought a newspaper, sat up front on the top deck.

(c) (US tramp) a railroad line.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 66: Drag.- [...] a railroad line.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 236: My clothes were clean, but shabby with riding the drag.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 797: drag – a railroad line.

(a) a disappointment, a pity, a nuisance, a task that one has no desire to perform; a bore; a state of irritation or frustration.

1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 2/1: Nature was entirely exhausted [...] and night overtaking her she got in ‘a drag’ and botched off puking Billy in an unfinished state.
1863		Annals of the Army of the Cumberland 61: ‘General, you are leading a hard life,’ we remarked [...] ‘Yes, rather hard, and if this life were all, it would be a wretched drag.’.
1881		‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 168: Until women’s suffrage came among us, life was a drag – a monotonous sameness, and simultaneous continuousness.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 9: What you want is a drag, my boy.
[1901–02		(?) H. Lawson ‘Drifting Apart’ in Roderick (1972) 604: They [i.e. children] were an awful drag in the city].
1920		Marvel 17 Apr. 14: ‘I’ve been a terrible drag on you.’ ‘You – a drag?’ he cried [...] ‘You’ve been a little angel to me!’.
1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 30 July 11/1: The trek here was a drag because we latched onto one of those [...] rattlers that stopped at every shack on the line.
1940		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 10 Feb. 7/1: Hi Billy — I hope you won’t dig me as being a drag in layin’ this line on you.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 31: Wham, I woke up to find myself in jail again. It was getting to be a drag.
1955		Picture Post 15 Jan. 20: I didn’t want pregnancy to become a drag.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] Who needs the Taj Mahal when it’s a drag to live at all?
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 125: When this gets to be a drag we’ll steal a car and cut out.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 15: It would be a drag to try and save one for Mick.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 7: The neighborhood was absolutely [...] black [...] This was the only drag about copping from Brody.
1983		Marion Star (OH) 20 Sept. 1/7: ‘They (straight kids) were drags, boring’.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 118: ‘It’s a nightmare sitting through that stuff. It’s dead, dead.’ ‘Is it necessarily such a drag?’.
1998		Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 20: I didn’t want to stay in Queens, it would be a big drag.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 65: He’s on me before I know it, which is a drag cos if I’d seen him coming I would have swerved him.
2002		Philadelphia Inquirer (PA) 10 Dec. B09/1: He signed up for a dance program [...] It turned out to be a drag, really boring.
2002		R.G. Barrett Mystery Bay Blues 251: Move into a motel. That’s going to be a nice drag just for one night.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 72: School’s a drag.
2010		K. Richards Life 287: It was a reakl drag to wake up every day with these bluebottles around your door, these bobbies.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘Come on, baby, don’t be a drag. Dance with me’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 83: ‘Don’t be a drag. It’s two in the morning, and I’m slurping a sno-cone’.

(b) a lie, a deception.

1960

‘Lord Buckley’ Hiparama of the Classics 17: Some claim that Brutus’s story was a drag, / But I dug the story was solid!

(c) (also dragger) of a person, a disappointment, a hanger-on, a pest.

1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Feb. 3/1: Mr. Gough, a gentleman who is studying the Law, and a regular drag, was plaintiff.
1857		A. Mathews Tea Table Talk I 106: I should like to have Mrs. Sheridan at my music on Tuesday, but then There’s that drag of a husband .
1892		S. Crane in N.Y. Press 8 July in Stallman (1966) 64: Binks [...] replied with a look that called his wife a drag [...] the weight of his existence.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 32: drag, n. A bore.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 206: He says to tell you not to think we’ll ever be a drag on him.
1941		in D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 26 Dec. 1942 16: Those drags who were [...] the last to arrive.
1945		‘Henry Green’ Loving (1978) 85: Well I’ve got to take those little draggers out this afternoon.
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 143: What a drag a woman with a habit can be [...] what a day-to-day burden—.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 29: If you get known to be a ‘drag’ [...] you can’t do business.
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 15: I had nothing aganst drugs [...] it would have been square to be antagonistic towards them [...] I should have been a ‘drag’.
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 85: You’re a bleedin’ drag sometimes.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 162: Sleep was for lazies [...] and the plainly slags and drags.
1997		Da Bomb Summer Supplement 5: Drag [...] (n.) 2. Someone who is boring, lazy and not fun to hang around with.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 207: ‘I don’t want to be a drag, but maybe—’ ‘You’re not a drag, boychick,’ Ed said. ‘If I wanted a drag working for me in Saigon, I’d send Leo’.

(d) (US black campus) an old-fashioned person.

1947

M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.

(e) a depressing atmosphere.

1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 30: There is no drag like U.S. drag.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 88: The oldlady almost put a drag on the party by diggin up a record with some dame singin Because.

(f) of drugs, second-rate.

1983

N. Heard House of Slammers 88: I need the best I can find. / So you cop me a bag, and if it ain’t no drag, / I’ll let you cop some mo’e.

(a) female dress as worn by men, but not in a homosexual context, e.g. on stage.

1870		Reynold’s 29 May n.p.: ‘Police Proceedings.’ [...] We shall come in drag, which means wearing women’s costumes [F&H].
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 117/1: Drag (Theat.) Petticoat or skirt used by actors when playing female parts. Derived from the drag of the dress, as distinct from the non-dragginess of the trouser.
c.1925		R. McAlmon Miss Knight (1963) 62: I wuz at the Y.M.C.A. – in drag you know – some outfit I had too, stars and spangles and jewels all over me.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 136: Miss Savoy, the notorious impersonator came sailing by, in a grand drag.
1949		L. Hughes Tambourines to Glory Prologue: I put on drag sometimes.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 93: [It] specializes in shows in drag with men made up as women.
1961		Rigney & Smith Real Bohemia xi: He became known as [...] ‘Margaret Mead in drag’.
1965		K. Marlowe Mr Madam (1967) 31: I played ‘house’ with Connie and dolled up in my drags.
1971		T. Lewis Plender [ebook] ‘No drag.’ ‘Not even when we get home?’.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 247: What’d he say? The Catholics were Baptists in drag?
1982		H. Beaton Outside In I ii: They all looked like men. Even the screws. I thought they were men in drag.
1993		(con. 1930s) Kennedy & Davies Boots of Leather (2014) 41: ‘The boys were doing a drag show and someone tipped the police off [...] They let the show go on all the way right up to the end [...] with the girls [...] in their drag and everything.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 170: Plucked eyebrows, the black mascara and the scarlet gown worn on special occasions, the only sign of the ‘drag’ deplored by the Australians in the train.
2001		N. Tosches Where Dead Voices Gather (ms.) 296: The song was being performed by the blackface vaudeville team of Baker and Farrell – one of them in proto-Jemima drag – when it was heard by Chris Rutt, a man in search of a name for his new self-rising pancake mix.

(b) (also drags) female dress as worn by homosexual males; also male dress as worn by lesbians [note Baker (2019) ‘[D]rag can often be much more than clothing, and reflects a mental, emotional or sexual state of being. Some trans people have pointed out that the real ‘drag’ is to have to wear the clothing that is socially expected of them].

a.1870		J. Fiske letter in Pearsall Worm in Bud (1969) 463: He tells me you are living in drag [...] the thought of you – Lais and Antinous in one – is ravishing.
1870		Home News for India (supp.) 3 June 35/2: I know what ‘in drag’ means; it is the slang for going about in women’s clothes.
1873		Sl. Dict. 149: Drag feminine attire worn by men. A recent notorious impersonation case led to the publication of the word in that sense.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 117/1: Drag [...] Also [the name] given to feminine clothing by eccentric youths when dressing up in skirts.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 30: drag [...] Amongst female impersonators on the stage and men of dual sex instincts ‘drag’ denotes female attire donned by a male. Example: ‘All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight’.
1927		M. West Drag (1997) Act II: I’ve got the most gorgeous new drag. Black satin, very tight, with a long train of rhinestones.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 166: They visited Atlantic City in time to attend the famous Iceman’s Ball, noted far and wide for the fashionable drags displayed. [Ibid.] 186: Fay had decided to be brilliant and go as a queen. She had with her a drag – ‘Something gorgeous, simply devastating,’ Percy Chichi called it.
1933		Ford & Tyler Young & Evil 11: The Lesbian said yes your face is so exquisite we thought you were a lesbian in drag.
1948		K. Williams Diaries 31 Jan. 21: It was a very good show — quite gay in parts, with some lovely, oh luvly camping and drag!
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 218: Some of these girls [...] are really boys. In uh drag I believe is the word???
1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 83: ‘Drag’ they call that, you can get three years for it ...
1967		S. Harris Hellhole 234: In addition to ‘stud broads,’ who dress in ‘drag,’ there are others who [...] can ‘take or leave drag clothes, not have to depend on clothes to make the man, you know.’.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 266: Donna Jean, a sissy, who worked in drag.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 214: Seventy, eighty per cent of the hookers are faggot transvestites or homos in drag.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Drag. 2. To dress ‘in drag’, i.e. for male to don women’s clothing.
2003		K. Cage Gayle.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] What if he went in drag? What if he decided to become Dolly Parton or Kylie Minogue?
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 150: ‘This ain’t bout no femme-queen realness or no butch queen up in drags’.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 41: [M]y Old Woman insisted it was laudanum that made the nun fade [...] I believe this now to be caca [ibid.] 229: ‘I just clattered this caca [i.e. clothes] up for fun. Ridiculou sea-queen drag’.

(c) a party held en travesti (cf. drag ball ).

1887		Eve. Star (DC) 15 Jan. 8/2: A squad of officers [...] raided a ‘drag’ given by a party of whites and blacks [...] Two of the male dancers were naked.
1896		Eve. Star (DC) 13 Jan. 2/5: William Dorsey Swann [...] at whose house [...] a ‘drag’ was raided about two weeks ago [etc].
1914		L.A. Times 14 Nov. II 8: He said that the members sometimes spent hundreds of dollars on silk gowns, hosiery, etc., in which they dressed at sessions of this club. He said that at these ‘drags’ the ‘queer’ people have a good time, but no one could get in without being introduced by a member in good standing.
1919		Transcript Foster Inq. in L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 42: A ‘big drag’ where Goldstein said liquor and ‘snow’ would be served.
1927		A.J. Rosanoff Manual of Psychiatry in Katz Gay/Lesbian Almanac (1983) 440: A drag, a social gathering of homosexuals at which some are in female dress.
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 27 Dec. [synd. col.] [T]hose uptown ‘drags’ [should] be called ‘nancy dress balls’.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 186: The Percival Beach-Bütsches gave a drag the next night under the protection of the people higher up.
1938		C. Beaton Cecil Beaton’s N.Y. 174: Sometimes a ‘Drag’ (or costume ball) is announced.
1951		D.W. Cory Homosexual in America 129: O, I just don’t know what I’m going to wear to the drag!
2003		K. Cage Gayle.
2021		(ref. to late 1860s) C.G. Joseph ‘William Dorsey Swann’ in African American National Biography 🌐 Swann is the earliest-documented person to beknown as ‘queen’ of a crossdressing ball described by its participants as a ‘drag’.

(d) (US/Aus.) a party (with no specific gay overtones).

1921		Broadway Brevities Dec 33: Dear Vesk: For God’s sake don’t forget there’s a drag on tonight.
1925		Literary Digest 14 Mar. 65: College dances are often called ‘drags’ [HDAS].
1952		B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz 115: The cotillion orchestra and polite quartet that accompanied high society drags [OED].
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 338/1: ca. 1925–30 . . . since ca. 1950.

(e) (US gay) a homosexual man dressed in female clothing, a drag queen n. (1)

1929		T. Gordon Born to Be (1975) 218: Must I turn drag, eh?
1931		B. Niles Strange Brother (1932) 210: The Drag Ball [...] was a great masquerade party to which men went in fancy dress — went in the costumes of women. The men, so dressed, were called ‘drags’ [...] The men dressed in what Harlem calles ‘drag,’ men in the garb of women.
1940		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 2 Nov. 10/5: [W]hat can a man in another man see?...men like that are just plain ’drags’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 61/2: Drag. [...] 4. A man in feminine attire; feminine attire worn by a fag.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 286: My dear, the Most Fabulous Drags in the world go there [...] and the simply butchest numbers.
1985		K. Vacha Quiet Fire 77: This bitch drag screwed me.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 194: He brings me in bottles of perfume and make-up [...] and I swap it with the drags for a polish.
1994		G. Indiana Rent Boy 67: Big drags in sequins doing bad lip-sync.
2010		C. Rawlings-Way Sydney 199/2: Women and drags shouldn’t bother.

(f) (US) a bar that caters primarily to a gay clientele.

1940		S. Longstreet Decade 317: The John Laws are knocking over cathouses, clip-joints, [...] call apartments, drags.
1965		A. James America’s Homosexual Underground 133: I’ll never forget those Harlem drags during prohibition.

(g) clothing in general; a costume, a disguise.

1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 32: I had precisely my full teenage drag [...] the gray pointed alligator casuals, the pink neon pair of ankle crêpe nylon-stretch, my Cambridge blue glove-fit jeans, a vertical-striped happy shirt.
1961		R.A. Norton Through Beatnik Eyeballs 19: Had me these three rag-dolls which I plainly brought to life. Gave them handles and ages, made them cute little drag.
1974		The Who ‘5:15’ 🎵 He-man drag in a glittering ballroom, greyly outrageous in my high-heeled shoes.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 189: Just because you’re in sailor drag [etc.].
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 11 July 2: It’s also easy to see the Soho gangster’s posturing as a form of macho drag.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 328: Tim rang the bell. A full-drag dune coon opened up.
2015		‘Elvis Costello’ Unfaithful Music 355: Bruce [Springsteen] was gracious and laughed like a drain when he saw us in our Nashville drag.

(a) a puff of a marijuana cigarette; thus give a drag v., to pass a marijuana cigarette; take a drag v., to take a puff on the cigarette.

1904		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 33: With that the old sport took another drag on the dope stick and faded away in the darkness.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 120: He lit one right there and [...] After a few short drags he handed it to me.
1952		J. McNulty ‘Come Quick, Indians!’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 270: I’d take a last drag on the Sweet Caporal.
a.1962		‘Konky Mohair’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 107: When hustlers are dealing in zeroes / And thoroughbreds treated unfair, / They all take a drag on their reefers / And say prayers to St. Konky Mohair.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 8: Earl took a slow drag from his reefer before answering.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 22: He took another drag.
2000		Indep. 25 Jan. 2: He had smoked cannabis but found it an unpleasant experience: ‘I’m not a smoker, you’d try a drag and all you’d do is cough’.

(b) a puff of a cigarette; thus the cigarette itself; thus drag v., to smoke.

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 30: drag [...] an inhalation of smoke, tobacco or opium.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise 58: The ponies took last drags at their cigarettes and slumped into place.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 6: He took a last drag at his cigarette.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 167: I took another drag on the cigarette.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 153: ‘A drag,’ Clarke said. ‘Gimme a drag.’ [...] Clarke took it gingerly and sucked, burning his fingers.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 24: I took another drag on the cigarette.
1979		Lette & Carey Puberty Blues 11: Give us a drag Sue.
1982		E. Mac Thomáis Janey Mack, Me Shirt is Black 98: Craven A cigarettes were made specially to prevent sore throats and the David Allen bill boards had a picture of an opera singer having a few drags before going on stage to sing his final aria.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 2: The Young Man takes a drag off his smoke.
2000		M. Amis Experience 105: She was never a serious smoker [...] she takes a drag then puffs out quickly.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 103: All entjies were called drags.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 154: He took an anguished drag of his cigarette.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 126: Later I was having a drag when Alfred came into the Smoke Room.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 26: She puts a cigarette between her lips and lights it. She takes a heavy drag.

(c) (UK prison) a cannabis or cannabis/tobacco cigarette.

a.1942		Z.N. Hurston Harlem Slanguage [vocabulary, typescript carbon in Beinecke Library Yale U.] 1: drag, a reefer.
1958		J. Sandford Whelks and the Chromium (1968) 126: She is indulging in a reefer or, put it another way, a drug-soaked drag.
1960		A. Seymour One Day of the Year (1977) II iii: mum: What are y’doin’ in there? hughie: Smoking a reefer [...] Having a drag. Marijuana.
1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 82: The youths meet at cinemas to smoke their ‘drag’ or dagga cigarettes.
1980		S. McConville ‘Prison Language’ in Michaels & Ricks (1980) 525: Cannabis indica [...] might be smoked in an African Woodbine, drag, reefer, stick, or sausage.
1996		Bynum & Thompson Juvenile Delinquency 290: The man popped a cap at cuzz while he laid a drag on a freak sitting on the benzo.

(d) a gulp or mouthful of alcohol.

1954

‘Curt Cannon’ ‘Deadlier Than the Mail’ in I Like ’Em Tough (1958) 136: He [...] took a long drag at the beer can.

(a) (US campus) a toady, a parasite, a flatterer.

1900

E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 32: drag, n. One who tries to curry favor.

(b) (US) a young woman who is being taken to a party.

1926		Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Drag - The girl you escort.
1928		H. Brackbill ‘Midshipman Jargon’ in AS III:6 453: Drag — to escort; the girl being escorted.
1932		J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 331: drag — n. —in fluence; a partner, usually at a dance.
1944		P. Kendall Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: drag . . . a date with a girl.
1955		W. White ‘Wayne University Sl.’ AS XXX:4 303: drag [...] 2. Girl taken on a date.
1970		Current Sl. V:3 16: Drag, n. A young lady whom a Cadet is escorting.
1989		R. Atkinson Long Gray Line (1990) 108: The life of a ‘drag,’ as a cadet called his date, was an odd lot.

(c) (US) a girlfriend, a young woman.

1956		H. Ellison Deadly Streets 181: In the Poppers, when a drag ties up with a stud, she carves his initials in her [...] arm.
1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 35: You see my drag?

(a) a slow dance or the music that accompanies it; occas. as verb (see cits 1974, 2000).

1916		‘Walkin’ the Dog’ 🎵 Do that slow drag ’round the hall.
1924		‘The Chicago Gouge’ 🎵 Down at a Chitlin rag, / They played a fiddlin’ drag.
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 140: The piano was throbbing like a stringed drum and the couples show-drag ging about the floor were urging the player on to new lows. [Ibid.] 173: Play some music, Jim, y’all over dere, and less dance some mo’. Nunkie wants tuh pick uh fight with Who Flung. Play us uh slow drag.
1946		Bill Treadwell Big Book of Swing 124: drag: a dance.
1957		Shake, Rattle and Rock [film script] Nothing braces me up like a good drag across the slag with a hag.
1960		Jazz; Quarterly of Amer. Music Winter 25: By that name or other names (‘ditties,’ ‘slow drags’) blues were as basic to early jazz as brass bands.
1974		N. Heard Cold Fire Burning 16: A slow number came on and I rose to my full stature as we began to slow-drag.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 191: They slow-dragged to Henderson’s ‘Be My Girl’.

(b) a dance, a party.

1956		H. Ellison ‘Made in Heaven’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 183: Now we had an apartment [...] and we could use it for drags.
1958		H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 16: Out there on a slab because someone had danced with his steady girl at a club drag.