From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdraughtdraught1 /drɑːft $ dræft/ noun [countable] British English 1 airCOLD AIRAIR cold air that moves through a room and that you can feel SYN draft American English Can you close the window? I’m in a draught.► see thesaurus at wind2 → on draught3 gameGAME a) draughts [uncountable] a game played by two people, each with 12 round pieces, on a board of 64 squares SYN checkers American English b) one of the round pieces used in the game of draughts SYN checker American English4 medicineMD old use a medicine that you drink a sleeping draught5 shipSHIPTTW technical the depth of water needed by a ship so that it will not touch the bottom of the sea, a river etc SYN draft American English6 swallowSWALLOWDFD written the act of swallowing liquid, or the amount of liquid swallowed at one time SYN draft American English Mick took a long draught of lager.
Examples from the Corpus
draught• The candles on either side of the altar flickered with the skull-flame in a draught.• A draught of cold air blew in.• The effect of a downward draught is that the development of hot spots in the kiln is minimised.• He recognized each draught of icy air slicing through cracks in doors made invisible by crowding shadows.• Belhaven Heavy, Tennent's Export and Guinness on draught.• Meat will be on the table shortly, but perhaps a refreshing draught beforehand.in a draught• The candles on either side of the altar flickered with the skull-flame in a draught.• It accounts for some 8.5 percent of all take-home lager sales and is also sold in draught.draughtdraught2 British English, draft American English adjective [only before noun] 1 draught beer is served from a large container rather than a bottle2 a draught animal is used for pulling heavy loadsFrom Longman Business Dictionarydraughtdraught /drɑːftdræft/ noun [countable]TRANSPORT a ship’s draught is the distance from the bottom of the ship to the level of the water. This distance is the depth of water that a ship needs to float → laden draught → light draught → load draughtOrigin draught1 (1100-1200) Old English dragan “to pull”; → DRAW1 