Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or an instance of drawing.
  • noun The art of representing objects or forms on a surface chiefly by means of lines.
  • noun A work produced by this art.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of imparting motion or impulse by pulling or hauling.
  • noun The act of attracting.
  • noun The act of forming or tracing lines, as with a pen, pencil, point, etc.; specifically, in the fine arts, the act or method of representing objects on a surface, strictly by means of lines, but, by extension, by means of lines combined with shades or shading, or with color, or even by means of shading or colors without lines; properly, a method of representation in which the delineation of form predominates over considerations of color.
  • noun A representation produced by the act of drawing; particularly, a work of art produced by pen, pencil, or crayon; also, a slighter or less elaborate work than a picture, very frequently in the sense of sketch, or a hasty and abridged representation of an object, scene, etc., often intended as a study for a more elaborate work to be executed later; also, especially in architecture, etc., a representation of a projected work; a design; a plan.
  • noun The art of a draftsman; the art governing the acts and methods included under sense 3.
  • noun The amount of money taken for sales in a shop or other trading establishment: usually in the plural.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of pulling, or attracting.
  • noun The act or the art of representing any object by means of lines and shades; especially, such a representation when in one color, or in tints used not to represent the colors of natural objects, but for effect only, and produced with hard material such as pencil, chalk, etc.; delineation; also, the figure or representation drawn.
  • noun The process of stretching or spreading metals as by hammering, or, as in forming wire from rods or tubes and cups from sheet metal, by pulling them through dies.
  • noun (Textile Manuf.) The process of pulling out and elongating the sliver from the carding machine, by revolving rollers, to prepare it for spinning.
  • noun The distribution of prizes and blanks in a lottery.
  • noun a small portion of tea for steeping.
  • noun See in the Vocabulary.
  • noun (Fine Arts) a thick, sized paper for draughtsman and for water-color painting.
  • noun a soft, slaty substance used in crayon drawing; -- called also black chalk, or drawing chalk.
  • noun a style of drawing made without the use of guiding or measuring instruments, as distinguished from mechanical or geometrical drawing; also, a drawing thus executed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of draw.
  • noun A picture, likeness, diagram or representation, usually drawn on paper.
  • noun The act of producing such a picture.
  • noun Such acts practiced as a graphic art form.
  • noun An act or event in which the outcome (e.g., designating a winner) is selected by chance in the form of a blind draw, notably of lots; especially such a contest in which a winning name or number is selected randomly by removing (or drawing) it from a container, popularly a hat).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an illustration that is drawn by hand and published in a book, magazine, or newspaper
  • noun a representation of forms or objects on a surface by means of lines
  • noun act of getting or draining something such as electricity or a liquid from a source
  • noun players buy (or are given) chances and prizes are distributed by casting lots
  • noun the act of moving a load by drawing or pulling
  • noun the creation of artistic pictures or diagrams

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word drawing.

Examples

  • In a drawing to be reproduced by mechanical processes, the proportions of the design are, of course, unalterably determined by the required panel or page; but the _size_ of the _drawing_ may be such as best suits the inclination and convenience of the draughtsman.

    Letters and Lettering A Treatise With 200 Examples Frank Chouteau Brown

  • Of course this seriously comic or comically serious Opera is drawing -- [ "_Music_," observes Mr. WAGG, parenthetically, "cannot be _drawing_"] -- and will continue to do so for some little time, long enough at all events to reimburse

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, October 15, 1892 Various 1876

  • I remember a Roy Lichtenstein drawing from the 80s that showed a distraught woman of indeterminate age with a speech bubble saying, I can't believe it ...

    Pamela Newton: The Curse of the Unmarried Generation Pamela Newton 2010

  • I remember a Roy Lichtenstein drawing from the 80s that showed a distraught woman of indeterminate age with a speech bubble saying, I can't believe it ...

    Pamela Newton: The Curse of the Unmarried Generation Pamela Newton 2010

  • I remember a Roy Lichtenstein drawing from the 80s that showed a distraught woman of indeterminate age with a speech bubble saying, I can't believe it ...

    Pamela Newton: The Curse of the Unmarried Generation Pamela Newton 2010

  • I mean, there was a lot of language that we hadn't heard since before the invasion of Iraq, the -- you know, the use of the term drawing a line in the sand.

    CNN Transcript Sep 25, 2009 2009

  • But with his term drawing to an end, and a souring relationship with Congress, his stature on Capitol Hill has diminished.

    Paulson Wants Rest of TARP Funds From Congress 2008

  • The term drawing is actually a shortening of withdrawing.

    unknown title 2009

  • “This is what I call drawing to an inside straight flush,” he marveled.

    Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011

  • “This is what I call drawing to an inside straight flush,” he marveled.

    Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • In glassmaking, the process of pulling semi-molten glass to elongate it.

    November 9, 2007