Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A disadvantage or inconvenience. See Synonyms at disadvantage.
- n. A refund or remittance, such as a discount on duties or taxes for goods destined for reexport.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any loss of advantage or impairment of profit, value, success, or satisfaction; a discouragement or hindrance; a disadvantage.
- n. Money or an amount paid back; usually, a certain amount of duties or customs dues paid back or remitted to an importer when he exports goods that he has previously imported and paid duty on, as, for instance, tobacco, or a certain amount of excise paid back or allowed on the exportation of home manufactures. Abbreviated dbk.
- n. In iron-founding, a loose piece in a mold. In brass-founding such a piece is called a false core.
Wiktionary
- n. A disadvantage; something that detracts or takes away.
- n. A partial refund of an import fee, as when goods are re-exported from the country that collected the fee.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A loss of advantage, or deduction from profit, value, success, etc.; a discouragement or hindrance; objectionable feature.
- n. (Com.) Money paid back or remitted; especially, a certain amount of duties or customs, sometimes the whole, and sometimes only a part, remitted or paid back by the government, on the exportation of the commodities on which they were levied.
WordNet 3.0
- v. pull back or move away or backward
- v. use a surgical instrument to hold open (the edges of a wound or an organ)
- n. the quality of being a hindrance
Etymologies
- draw + back (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The main drawback is that the lawn could sink as the old turf rots, so you need to build it up a little higher than you might otherwise, to allow for shrinkage.”
The Guardian: Stumped? How to raise a lawn, plus overgrown perennials
“I did one a few years back and the main drawback is the cheesy driveline that is under an S-10.”
“Their main drawback is that they are two-thirds of a mile apart.”
“Their main drawback is that they are two-thirds of a mile apart.”
“The main drawback is that they remain separate to my Quicken accounts.”
Invoiceplace Manages Your Invoicing And Finances | Lifehacker Australia
“Their main drawback is they're small, so the bun dwarfs them.”
“The main drawback is that it makes Internet operations very, very slow.”
“The main drawback is cost -- you have to take it every day.”
“The main drawback is when there is an awesome discussion going on and you haven't read the book yet!”
“Titanium's main drawback is its cost, which explains why Remington's new Titanium 700 is priced significantly higher than the less”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘drawback’.
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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Stray Dray
draw, drawn, drawing, drawning, drawful, drawless, drawling, drawsome, draw in, draw out, withdraw, drew and 50 more...
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ECON - general customs terms
ad-valorem duty, agricultural duties, anti-dumping duties, approved exporter, association agree..., ATA carnet, authorised consignee, authorised consignor, binding origin in..., binding tariff in..., combined nomencla..., commercial policy... and 65 more...
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Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
mortgage, fiddling, rage, kick, stroke, dodge, hunch, scratch, covetous, rank, trickle, budget and 179 more...
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wunderkammer's Words
smarmy, bubkes, elucidate, togs, aeolian, carp, kibosh, bosky, ramshackle, mange, harpy, effervesce and 163 more...
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GRE AWA
escalating, vehement, vehemence, hostility, paparazzi, regime, irrespective, scoop, exaggerated, overblown, unfetter, scrupulous and 272 more...
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Whatever Works (2009)
Words from 2009 'Whatever Works' film.
fault, racket, unto, flaw, fallacious, notion, decent, embalm, filch, delusion, delusions of gran..., grandeur and 135 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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SAT Words Appearing More Than Once on...
A list of 166 words that have appeared more than once on official SAT exams. Based on Gruber's SAT Word Master list.
abolish, ameliorate, ambulatory, ambivalent, acquiesce, affirmation, atrophy, anchor, amity, amass, accent, abridge and 154 more...
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Front and Back
backchat, backbone, backpack, backhoe, backfire, backhanded, breakfront, beachfront, drawback, effrontery, frontier, switchback and 196 more...
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d is for depressing!
dolorous, damaging, depressing, drab, dull, dumb, derelict, decaying, dubious, doubtful, dreadful, dangerous and 86 more...
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New Words
New Words - Building my own vocabulary
brownfield, greenfield, behalf, pet peeve, lead time, mock, proxy, craftsman, cliff, Nimble, Awkward, craftsmanship and 85 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for drawback.

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