to
certain specific meanings), the act or action of drawing, extending,
pulling, &c. It is thus applied to animals used for drawing vehicles or
loads, "draught oxen," &c., to the quantity of fish taken by one "drag"
of a net, to a quantity of liquid taken or "drawn in" to the mouth, and
to a current of air in a chimney, a room or other confined space. In
furnaces the "draught" is "natural" when not increased artificially, or
"forced" when increased by mechanical methods (see BOILER). The water a
ship "draws," or her "draught," is the depth to which she sinks in the
water as measured from her keel. The word was formerly used of a "move"
in chess or similar games, and is thus, in the plural, the general
English name of the game known also as "checkers" (see DRAUGHTS). The
spelling "draft" is generally employed in the following usages. It is a
common term for a written order "drawn on" a banker or other holder of
funds for the payment of money to a third person; thus a cheque (q.v.)
is a draft. A special form of draft is a "banker's draft," an
instruction by one bank to another bank, or to a branch of the bank
making the instruction, to pay a sum of money to the order of a certain
specified person. Other meanings of "draft" are an outline, plan or
sketch, or a preliminary drawing up of an instrument, measure, document,
&c., which, after alteration and amendment, will be embodied in a final
or formal shape; an allowance made by merchants or importers to those
who sell by retail, to make up a loss incurred in weighing or measuring;
and a detachment or body of troops "drawn off" for a specific purpose,
usually a reinforcement from the depot or reserve units to those abroad
or in the field. For the use of the term "draft" or "draught" in masonry
and architecture see DRAFTED MASONRY.

DRAUGHTS (from A.S. _dragan_, to draw), a game played with pieces (or
"men") called draughtsmen on a board marked in squares of two alternate
colours. The game is called Checkers in America, and is known to the
French as _Les Dames_ and to the Germans as _Damenspiel_. Though the
game is not mentioned in the _Complete Gamester_, nor the _Academie de
jeux_, and is styled a "modern invention" by Strutt, yet a somewhat
similar game was known to the Egyptians, some of the pieces used having
been found in tombs at least as old as 1600 B.C., and part of Anect
Hat-Shepsa's board and some of her men are to be seen in the Egyptian
gallery of the Briti