Decrease and Drag

noun

• A change downward.
  • usage: "there was a decrease in his temperature as the fever subsided"; "there was a sharp drop-off in sales"
  • synonyms: lessening, drop-off
• A process of becoming smaller or shorter.
  • synonyms: decrement
• The amount by which something decreases.
  • synonyms: decrement
• The act of decreasing or reducing something.
  • synonyms: diminution, reduction, step-down

verb

• Decrease in size, extent, or range.
  • usage: "The amount of homework decreased towards the end of the semester"; "The cabin pressure fell dramatically"; "her weight fell to under a hundred pounds"; "his voice fell to a whisper"
  • synonyms: diminish, lessen, fall
• Make smaller.
  • usage: "He decreased his staff"
  • synonyms: lessen, minify

• (v.t.) To cause to grow less; to diminish gradually; as, extravagance decreases one's means.
• (v.) A becoming less; gradual diminution; decay; as, a decrease of revenue or of strength.
• (n.) To grow less, -- opposed to increase; to be diminished gradually, in size, degree, number, duration, etc. or in strength, quality or excellence; as, they days decrease in length from June to December.
• (v.) The wane of the moon.

noun

• The phenomenon of resistance to motion through a fluid.
  • synonyms: retarding force
• Something that slows or delays progress.
  • usage: "taxation is a drag on the economy"; "too many laws are a drag on the use of new land"
• Something tedious and boring.
  • usage: "peeling potatoes is a drag"
• Clothing that is conventionally worn by the opposite sex (especially women's clothing when worn by a man. )
  • usage: "he went to the party dressed in drag"; "the waitresses looked like missionaries in drag"
• A slow inhalation (as of tobacco smoke. )
  • usage: "he took a puff on his pipe"; "he took a drag on his cigarette and expelled the smoke slowly"
  • synonyms: puff, pull
• The act of dragging (pulling with force. )
  • usage: "the drag up the hill exhausted him"

verb

• Pull, as against a resistance.
  • usage: "He dragged the big suitcase behind him"; "These worries were dragging at him"
• Draw slowly or heavily.
  • usage: "haul stones"; "haul nets"
  • synonyms: haul, hale, cart
• Force into some kind of situation, condition, or course of action.
  • usage: "They were swept up by the events"; "don't drag me into this business"
  • synonyms: embroil, tangle, sweep, sweep up, drag in
• Move slowly and as if with great effort.
• To lag or linger behind.
  • usage: "But in so many other areas we still are dragging"
  • synonyms: trail, get behind, hang back, drop behind, drop back
• Suck in or take (air. )
  • usage: "draw a deep breath"; "draw on a cigarette"
  • synonyms: puff, draw
• Use a computer mouse to move icons on the screen and select commands from a menu.
  • usage: "drag this icon to the lower right hand corner of the screen"
• Walk without lifting the feet.
  • synonyms: scuff
• Search (as the bottom of a body of water) for something valuable or lost.
  • synonyms: dredge
• Persuade to come away from something attractive or interesting.
  • usage: "He dragged me away from the television set"
• Proceed for an extended period of time.
  • usage: "The speech dragged on for two hours"
  • synonyms: drag on, drag out

• (v.t.) A heavy harrow, for breaking up ground.
• (v.t.) A kind of sledge for conveying heavy bodies; also, a kind of low car or handcart; as, a stone drag.
• (v.i.) To serve as a clog or hindrance; to hold back.
• (v.t.) A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.
• (v.t.) A heavy coach with seats on top; also, a heavy carriage.
• (v.t.) Anything towed in the water to retard a ship's progress or to keep her head up to the wind; especially, a canvas bag with a hooped mouth, so used. See Drag sail (below).
• (v.t.) Hence, anything that retards; a clog; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment.
• (v.t.) Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged.
• (v.i.) To fish with a dragnet.
• (v.t.) To draw along, as something burdensome; hence, to pass in pain or with difficulty.
• (v.t.) The bottom part of a flask or mold, the upper part being the cope.
• (v.t.) To draw slowly or heavily onward; to pull along the ground by main force; to haul; to trail; -- applied to drawing heavy or resisting bodies or those inapt for drawing, with labor, along the ground or other surface; as, to drag stone or timber; to drag a net in fishing.
• (n.) A confection; a comfit; a drug.
• (v.i.) To move onward heavily, laboriously or slowly; to advance with weary effort; to go on lingeringly.
• (v.t.) A net or an apparatus, to be drawn along the bottom under water, as in fishing, searching for drowned persons, etc.
• (v.t.) The difference between the speed of a screw steamer under sail and that of the screw when the ship outruns the screw; or between the propulsive effects of the different floats of a paddle wheel. See Citation under Drag, v. i., 3.
• (v.t.) The act of dragging; anything which is dragged.
• (v.t.) Also, a skid or shoe, for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel.
• (v.i.) To be drawn along, as a rope or dress, on the ground; to trail; to be moved onward along the ground or along the bottom of the sea, as an anchor that does not hold.
• (v.t.) To break, as land, by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow; to draw a drag along the bottom of, as a stream or other water; hence, to search, as by means of a drag.