Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - draft

(drafts, drafting, drafted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A draft is an early version of a letter, book, or speech. I rewrote his rough draft, which was published under my name... I faxed a first draft of this article to him. N-COUNT: usu with supp 2. When you draft a letter, book, or speech, you write the first version of it. He drafted a standard letter to the editors... VERB: V n 3. If you are drafted, you are ordered to serve in the armed forces, usually for a limited period of time. (mainly AM) During the Second World War, he was drafted into the US Army... = conscript VERB: usu passive, be V-ed into n 4. If people are drafted into a place, they are moved there to do a particular job. Extra police have been drafted into the town after the violence... The manager will make a special plea to draft the player into his squad as a replacement. VERB: be V-ed in/into n, V n in/into n 5. The draft is the practice of ordering people to serve in the armed forces, usually for a limited period of time. (mainly AM) ...his effort to avoid the draft. = conscription N-SING: the N 6. A draft is a written order for payment of money by a bank, especially from one bank to another. Ten days later Carmen received a bank draft for a plane ticket. N-COUNT: oft by N 7. see also draught