drawl

Meanings

Verb

• To drag on slowly and heavily; to while or dawdle away time indolently.
• To utter or pronounce in a dull, spiritless tone, as if by dragging out the utterance.
• To move slowly and heavily; move in a dull, slow, lazy manner.
• To speak with a slow, spiritless utterance, from affectation, laziness, or lack of interest.

Noun

• A way of speaking slowly while lengthening vowel sounds and running words together. Characteristic of some southern US accents, as well as Scots.

Origin

• 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, Icelandic dralla ("to loiter, linger").