drain

English Online Dictionary. What means drain‎? What does drain mean?

English

Alternative forms

• drein (obsolete)
• dreen (Appalachia)

Etymology

From Middle English dreinen, from Old English drēahnian (“to drain, strain, filter”), from Proto-Germanic *drauhnōną (“to strain, sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, parched”). Akin to Old English drūgian (“to dry up”), Old English drūgaþ (“dryness, drought”), Old English drȳġe (“dry”). More at dry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɹeɪn/
• (dialectal) IPA^(key): /dɹiːn/ (see dreen)
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Noun

drain (plural drains)

1. (chiefly US, Canada) A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume; a plughole (UK)
2. (chiefly UK) An access point or conduit for rainwater that drains directly downstream in a (drainage) basin without going through sewers or water treatment in order to prevent or belay floods.
3. A natural or artificial watercourse which drains a tract of land.

   Saganing Drain, Vermuyden's Drain, the South Drain river, Najafgarh drain

   • 1770 (printed in 1834), George Washington, The Writings of George Washington: pt. I. Official letters ..., page 531:

     […] the little runs and drains, that come through the hills, and to the sources of the creeks and their branches.
4. Something consuming resources and providing nothing in return.

5. (vulgar) An act of urination.
6. (electronics) One terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).
7. (pinball) An outhole.
8. (UK, slang, dated) A drink.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → French: drain
• → Irish: draein
• → Welsh: draen

Translations

Verb

drain (third-person singular simple present drains, present participle draining, simple past and past participle drained)

1. (intransitive) To lose liquid.

2. (intransitive) To flow gradually.

3. (transitive, ergative) To cause liquid to flow out of.

4. (transitive, ergative) To convert a perennially wet place into a dry one.

5. (transitive) To deplete of energy or resources.

6. (transitive) To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to exhaust.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To filter.
8. (intransitive, pinball) To fall off the bottom of the playfield.
9. (slang, archaic, transitive) To drink.
   • Bet the Coaley's Daughter (traditional song)

     But when I strove my flame to tell, / Says she, 'Come, stow that patter, / If you're a cove wot likes a gal, / Vy don't you stand some gatter?' / In course I instantly complied— / Two brimming quarts of porter, / With sev'ral goes of gin beside, / Drain'd Bet the Coaley's daughter.

10. (transitive, basketball, slang) To make a shot.

Alternative forms

• drein (obsolete)

Derived terms

Descendants

• → French: drainer (see there for further descendants)

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Darin, Drina, Indra, Nadir, Nardi, Ndari, Radin, dinar, nadir, ranid

Cimbrian

Numeral

drain

1. dative of drai

French

Etymology

From English drain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʁɛ̃/

Noun

drain m (plural drains)

1. (electronics) drain

Further reading

• “drain”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Welsh

Alternative forms

• draen, draenennau

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *draɣen, from Proto-Celtic *dragenā (“sloetree, blackthorn, Prunus spinosa”) (compare Old Irish draigen, modern Irish draighean), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰergʰ- (“blackbush, sloe tree”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /drai̯n/
• Rhymes: -ai̯n
• Homophone: draen (South Wales)

Noun

drain f (collective, singulative draenen)

1. (botany) thorns

Derived terms

Mutation

References