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Toboggan vs Drag - What's the difference?

toboggan | drag |

As nouns the difference between toboggan and drag

is that toboggan is a long sled without runners, with the front end curled upwards, which may be pulled across snow by a cord or used to coast down hills while drag is resistance of the air (or some other fluid) to something moving through it.

As verbs the difference between toboggan and drag

is that toboggan is to slide down a hill on a toboggan or other object while drag is to pull along a surface or through a medium, sometimes with difficulty.

toboggan

Alternative forms

* tobogin

Noun

(en noun)
  • A long sled without runners, with the front end curled upwards, which may be pulled across snow by a cord or used to coast down hills.
  • * 1877 , John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms , second edition, enlarged:
  • Toboggan has not yet found its Way into the dictionaries, and there are other ways of spelling it.
  • * 1882 , Louis Prosper Bender, Old and New Canada. 1753-1844: Historic Scenes and Social Pictures, Or, The Life of Joseph-Francois Perrault :
  • Nothing could be more exciting and exhilarating than a slide, on sleigh or toboggan , from the lofty summit of the ice-mound or cone down to its base.
  • * 1884 , Henry Chadwick, The Sports and Pastimes of American Boys: A Guide and Text-book of Games of the Play-ground, the Parlor, and the Field Adapted Especially for American Youth (G. Routledge and sons), page 201:
  • The “toboggan ” is a light flat sleigh, used by the Canadian aborigines to bring home over the snow the spoils of the hunt.
  • * 1885 , A. T. Tucker (Alfred Thomas Tucker) Wise, Alpine Winter in Its Medical Aspects: With Notes on Davos Platz, Wiesen, St. Moritz, and the Maloja :
  • The toboggan may be described as a flat plank turned up at one end.
  • * 1887 , Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, David Kennedy, David Kennedy: The Scottish Singer : Reminiscences of His Life and Work :
  • A toboggan consists of two pieces of bark joined side by side and curved up at the front.
  • * 1897 , Charles A. Bramble, “Winter Fishing Through the Ice”, in The Sportsman's Magazine , page 430:
  • Every half hour or so one or the other would steal off with snowshoes and toboggan to make the round of the holes, often returning with half a dozen fish that together weighed perhaps twelve pounds, perhaps twenty-four pounds; . . .
  • * 2006 , Rita Tregellas Pope, Landmark Visitors Guide Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly :
  • Trenance Park has gardens, a toboggan run, miniature golf and the indoor delights of Water World with its tropical fun pool and flumes.
  • (North America) A similar sled of wood, pulled by dogs, possibly with steel runners, made to transport cargo.
  • * 1847 , Abraham Gesner, New Brunswick; with Notes for Emigrants: Comprehending the Early History, an Account of the Indians, Settlement, Topography, Statistics, Commerce, Timber, Manufactures, Agriculture, Fisheries, Geology, Natural History, Social and Political State, Immigrants, and Contemplated Railways of that Province :
  • The old toboggan has been laid aside, and sleighs or waggons dash along the streets.
  • * 1889 , John G. Donkin, Trooper and Redskin in the Far North-west: Recollections of Life in the North-west Mounted Police :
  • These animals are harnessed by a padded collar to a light flat sleigh, of skins stretched across a frame of thin wood, called a toboggan .
  • (North Carolina) A winter hat or ski mask.
  • * 1915 , William Rush Dunton, Occupation therapy :
  • Suppose we wish to make a pointed cap, such as used to be known as a toboggan cap, from yarn or worsted.
  • * 1992 , Wallace Neal Briggs, Riverside Remembered :
  • Sissy bounded back in dressed in a heavy sweater and toboggan .
  • * 2005 , Dave Smith, Life's Too Short to Be an Underdog...And Other Spiritual Life Lessons I Learned from My Dog :
  • If you must adorn your dog with a hat, go with a toboggan -style hat. If It was good enough for Snoopy, It Is definitely good enough for your dog.
  • * 2006 , Cornelius Osgood, Winter :
  • The steer dog next to the sleigh prevents this by immediately leading off at a sixty-degree angle from the direction the others are going, thereby compensating for the sidewise stress and keeping the toboggan in the clear until the bend has been passed.
  • * 2006 , Frances Stegall, Grass Roots: 80 Years in Bailey Co. :
  • We used an old toboggan stuffed with cotton for the ball, and it served the purpose very well.
  • Something which, once it starts going (figuratively) downhill, is unstoppable until it reaches the bottom.
  • * 1907 , Joe Vila, The Sporting News'', read in Gordon H. Fleming, ''The Unforgettable Season (2006):
  • McGinnity began to hit the toboggan in 1906, after he had pitched his arm off the previous year. Last season his efforts at times were painful.
  • * 1948 , U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing before the Committee on Banking and Currency, on S.J. Res. 157, joint resolution to aid in protecting the Nation's economy against inflationary pressures. 80th Congress, 2nd Session July 29-August 4, 1948 :
  • If we were to hit the toboggan of a depression, wages would drop.
  • * 1989 , C.W. Peterson, Wake Up, Canada!: Reflections on Vital National Issues :
  • Farming was on “the toboggan .” New settlers who had purchased land could not meet their deferred payments.
  • * 2003 , Jim Harrison, Off to the Side :
  • The fact that I agreed showed that there was no hope of getting off the toboggan more than momentarily.
  • * 2005 , Richard Allan (EDT) Davison, The Art of the American Musical: Conversations with the Creators :
  • We all have found out that once a show goes into rehearsal, it's a toboggan slide and there's not enough time. So we had six months of preproduction meetings.

    Synonyms

    * (sled without runners) sled, sledge * (sled pulled by dogs) sledge, cariole, carriole

    See also

    * sleigh

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To slide down a hill on a or other object.
  • * 1887 , E. Katherine (Emily Katherine) Bates, A Year in the Great Republic :
  • Mr. Macaulay, the landlord, insisted upon trying to "toboggan " us down the mountain on the saddle cloth of one of the horses, an attempt that ended of course in disaster, for the surface was much too small for the three of us, and the snow too soft for the purpose.
  • * 1888 , Alfred Thomas Tucker Wise, Alpine winter in its medical aspects :
  • The aspect of this patient was greatly changed for the better; she was able to skate, toboggan , and mount 500 feet of Maloja Pass without fatigue.
  • * 1916 , William John Thomas, (John) Doran, Henry Frederick Turle, Joseph Knight, Vernon Horace Rendall, Florence Hayllar, Notes and Queries :
  • I froze my toes some years ago, while tobogganing , and was unaware of it until I took off my shoe and walked across the room, when the unusual noise on the boards attracted my attention.
  • * 2006 , Nita Hughes, The Cathar Legacy :
  • The hillside, lined with a coating of wet leaves ready to toboggan her down the slope, made her grateful for a few saplings that provided handholds.
  • To figuratively go downhill unstoppably until one reaches the bottom.
  • * 1945 , US House of Representatives, 1945 extension of the Reciprocal trade agreements act: hearings before the Committee on finance, United States Senate, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, on H.R. 3240, an act to extend the authority of the President under section 350 of the Tariff act of 1930, as amended, and for other purposes :
  • A depression in one nation can become the slide on which our civilization would toboggan into economic collapse.
  • * 2006 , Keith Dixon, Altered Life :
  • I can't win, can I? You think I'm posh and my folks think I'm tobogganing down-market faster than the royal family.

    Derived terms

    * power toboggan * toboggan cap (US) * toboggan down * tobogganer * tobogganist * toboggan run * toboggan slide (Canadian)

    References

    * * * Walt Wolfram, ?Jeffrey Reaser, Talkin' Tar Heel: How Our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina (2014, ISBN 1469614367) English terms derived from Canadian French ----

    drag

    English

    (wikipedia drag)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) . More at (l).

    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
    Derived terms
    * drag one's feet * dragline * what the cat dragged in

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Resistance of the air (or some other fluid) to something moving through it.
  • When designing cars, manufacturers have to take drag into consideration.
  • (countable, foundry) The bottom part of a sand casting mold.
  • (countable) A device dragged along the bottom of a body of water in search of something, e.g. a dead body, or in fishing.
  • (countable, informal) A puff on a cigarette or joint.
  • (countable, slang) Someone or something that is annoying or frustrating; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment.
  • Travelling to work in the rush hour is a real drag .
  • * J. D. Forbes
  • My lectures were only a pleasure to me, and no drag .
  • (countable, slang) Someone or something that is disappointing.
  • (countable, slang) Horse-drawn wagon or buggy.
  • (Thackeray)
  • (countable, slang) Street, as in 'main drag'.
  • (countable) The scent-path left by dragging a fox, for training hounds to follow scents.
  • to run a drag
  • (countable, snooker) A large amount of backspin on the cue ball, causing the cue ball to slow down.
  • A heavy harrow for breaking up ground.
  • A kind of sledge for conveying heavy objects; also, a kind of low car or handcart.
  • a stone drag
  • (metallurgy) The bottom part of a flask or mould, the upper part being the cope.
  • (masonry) A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone.
  • (nautical) 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.
  • 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 (drag sail), so used.
  • A skid or shoe for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel.
  • Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged.
  • * Hazlitt
  • Had a drag in his walk.
    Derived terms
    * drag race * main drag

    Etymology 2

    Possibly from (etyl) Douglas Harper, "camp (n.)" in Online Etymology Dictionary , 2001ff

    Noun

    (-)
  • (uncountable, slang) Women's clothing worn by men for the purpose of entertainment.
  • He performed in drag .
  • (uncountable, slang) Any type of clothing or costume associated with a particular occupation or subculture.
  • corporate drag
    Derived terms
    * drag king * drag queen * drag show

    References

    * Flight, 1913, p. 126] attributing to [[w:Archibald Low, Archibald Low] *