drawl

English

Etymology

From a modern frequentative form of draw, equivalent to draw +‎ -le. Compare draggle. Compare also Dutch dralen (“to drag out, delay, linger, tarry, dawdle”), Old Danish dravle (“to linger, loiter”), Icelandic dralla (“to loiter, linger”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɹɔːl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /dɹɔl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /dɹɑl/
• (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this pronunciation?) (US, paragon) IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɹɑːw/

Rhymes: -ɔːl

Verb

drawl (third-person singular simple present drawls, present participle drawling, simple past and past participle drawled)

1. (transitive) To drag on slowly and heavily; to while or dawdle away time indolently.
2. (transitive) To utter or pronounce in a dull, spiritless tone, as if by dragging out the utterance.
3. (intransitive) To move slowly and heavily; move in a dull, slow, lazy manner.
   • 1609, Thomas Dekker, The guls horne-booke‎^[1], pages 3-4:

     Tush, tush, Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer, nor all the litter of Fooles that now come drawling behinde them, neuer plaid the Clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of you all, shall, if hee will but boyle my Instructions in his brainepan.

   • 1631, Fernando de Rojas, The Spanish bavvd, represented in Celestina [...]‎^[2], page 36:

     Looke what leysure the old bearded Bawd takes / How softly she goes / How one leg comes drawling after another / Now she has her money, her armes are broken.

4. (intransitive) To speak with a slow, spiritless utterance, from affectation, laziness, or lack of interest.
   • 1828, Walter Savage Landor, “Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     talk sometimes a pestilence , and sometimes a hero , mostly in a drawling and dreaming way about it

Translations

to speak with a drawl

• Bulgarian: говоря провлечено (govorja provlečeno)
• Czech: mumlat impf, zamumlat pf, mluvit pomalu impf
• Dutch: lijzig spreken
• German: gedehnt sprechen, schleppend sprechen
• Romanian: tărăgăna (ro)
• Serbo-Croatian: razvlačiti (sh), otezati (sh)
• Swedish: söla (sv)
• Ukrainian: розтягувати слова (roztjahuvaty slova), протягнути (protjahnuty)

Noun

drawl (plural drawls)

1. A way of speaking slowly while lengthening vowel sounds and running words together. Characteristic of some Southern US accents, as well as Broad Australian, Broad New Zealand and Scots.

Derived terms

• Southern drawl

Translations

way of speaking slowly

• Bulgarian: провлечен говор (provlečen govor)
• Czech: jižanský přízvuk, pomalý styl řeči
• German: gedehnte Aussprache f, gedehnte Sprechweise f
• Italian: strascico (it) m
• Serbo-Croatian: razvlačenje, otezanje
• Swedish: sludder (sv), släpigt tal

See also

• brogue
• lilt
• lisp
• twang