Draught

How to spell draught

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce draught

What does draught mean?

1. nounA current of cold air moving through a room or enclosed space.
2. nounBeer or cider served from a cask or keg rather than from a bottle or can.
3. nounThe depth of water a ship needs in order to float, measured from the waterline to the bottom of the hull.

Draught in a sentence

• A cold draught crept under the front door all winter.

• The pub serves its best bitter on draught.

• The heavy cargo vessel has too deep a draught for the shallow harbour.

• The gap under the old door let in a constant draught.

• He much prefers ale on draught to the bottled version.

• The flat-bottomed barge has a shallow draught for river work.

Where does draught come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the native English spelling, descending from Old English and ultimately from the Germanic verb dragan, meaning 'to draw' or 'to pull'. A draught was originally simply 'something drawn': a pulling load, a current of air drawn through a space, or a single act of drawing liquid down the throat. The silent 'gh' is a fossil of an old guttural sound, the same hard back-of-the-throat noise that once ended words like 'night' and 'taught', which is why the spelling looks so unlike its modern pronunciation. Its close cousin 'draw' shows the same root without the consonant cluster, and the word is also the source of 'draughts', the board game in which pieces are drawn across the squares. American English simplified the spelling to 'draft' in the nineteenth century, but British and Canadian writing kept the older 'draught' form, which is exactly why it now feels like a trap to write.

How the word is built

• draugh- (from Old English dragan: to draw, pull)
• -t (noun suffix)

British and American spelling

Draught is the British spelling. American English spells it draft.