Verb

To pull along a surface or through a medium, sometimes with difficulty.

To move slowly.

To act or proceed slowly or without enthusiasm; to be reluctant.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= James R. Carter

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Flowers and Ribbons of Ice , passage=Dragging yourself out of a warm bed in the early hours of a wintry morning to go for a hike in the woods: It’s not an easy thing for some to do, but the visual treasures that await could be well worth the effort. If the weather conditions and the local flora are just right, you might come across fleeting, delicate frozen formations sprouting from certain plant stems, literally a garden of ice.}}

To move onward heavily, laboriously, or slowly; to advance with weary effort; to go on lingeringly.

* Byron

The day drags through, though storms keep out the sun.

* Gay

Long, open panegyric drags at best.

To draw along (something burdensome); hence, to pass in pain or with difficulty.

* Dryden

have dragged a lingering life

To serve as a clog or hindrance; to hold back.

* Russell

A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her.

(computing) To move (an item) on the computer display by means of a mouse or other input device.

To inadvertently rub or scrape on a surface.

To perform as a drag queen or drag king.

(soccer) To hit or kick off target.

* November 17 2012 , BBC Sport: Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham [http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20278355]

Arsenal were struggling for any sort of rhythm and Aaron Lennon dragged an effort inches wide as Tottenham pressed for a second.

To fish with a dragnet.

To break (land) by drawing a drag or harrow over it; to harrow.

(figurative) To search exhaustively, as if with a dragnet.

* Tennyson

while I dragged my brains for such a song

Verb

(lb) To grasp or grip.

:

*

*:But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window.

*, chapter=23

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.}}

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,

(lb) To contain or store.

:

(lb) To maintain or keep to a position or state.

#(lb) To have and keep possession of something.

#:

#*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 14, author=Angelique Chrisafis

, title=Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism, work=Guardian citation , passage=She was Nicolas Sarkozy's pin-up for diversity, the first Muslim woman with north African parents to hold a major French government post. But Rachida Dati has now turned on her own party elite with such ferocity that some have suggested she should be expelled from the president's ruling party.}}

#(lb) To reserve.

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#(lb) To cause to wait or delay.

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#(lb) To detain.

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#(lb) To be or remain valid; to apply.

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#*(John Locke) (1632-1705)

#*:The rule holds in land as all other commodities.

#To keep oneself in a particular state.

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#*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)

, chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother

#(lb) To impose restraint upon; to limit in motion or action; to bind legally or morally; to confine; to restrain.

#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

#*:We cannot hold mortality's strong hand.

#*(Richard Crashaw) (1613-1649)

#*:Death! what do'st? O, hold thy blow.

#* (1800-1859)

#*:He hath not sufficient judgment and self-command to hold his tongue.

#(lb) To bear, carry, or manage.

#:

#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

#*:Let him hold his fingers thus.

# Not to move; to halt; to stop.

#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

#*:And damned be him that first cries, "Hold , enough!"

#(lb) Not to give way; not to part or become separated; to remain unbroken or unsubdued.

#*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

#*:Our force by land hath nobly held .

# To remain ; to control an excretory bodily function.

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(lb) To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.

#(lb) To maintain, to consider, to opine.

#*1776 , (Thomas Jefferson) et al.'', ''(United States Declaration of Independence) :

#*:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

#*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}

#(lb) To bind (someone) to a consequence of his or her actions.

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#To maintain in being or action; to carry on; to prosecute, as a course of conduct or an argument; to continue; to sustain.

#*Bible, (Psalms) lxxxiii.1:

#*:Hold not thy peace, and be not still.

#*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

#*:Seedtime and harvest, heat and hoary frost, / Shall hold their course.

#To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain.

#*Bible, ii.15:

#*:Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught.

#*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

#*:But still he held his purpose to depart.

#(lb) To restrain oneself; to refrain; to hold back.

#*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

#*:His dauntless heart would fain have held / From weeping, but his eyes rebelled.

To win one's own service game.

To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).

:

*, chapter=5

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held , one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.}}

(lb) To derive right or title.

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:My crown is absolute, and holds of none.

*1817 , (William Hazlitt), ''

*:His imagination holds immediately from nature.