drawl
/dɹɔːl/
Etymology
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 (“to linger, loiter”), Icelandic dralla (“to loiter, linger”).
drawl means A way of speaking slowly while lengthening vowel sounds and running words together, characteristic of some Southern US accents, as well as Broad Australian, Broad New Zealand, and Scots. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 84 out of 100.
drawl is pronounced /dɹɔːl/.
Why “drawl” is a great word
DRAWL — [Noun, Verb] A slow, prolonged manner of speaking characterized by the deliberate lengthening of vowel sounds. From a frequentative form of 'draw' (to pull, drag) + the suffix '-le', or borrowed from Dutch or Low German *dralen* (to linger, delay). First attested in the 1590s. Unlike a 'slur,' which muddies consonants in haste, or a 'dawdle,' which wastes time through idleness, a drawl is a deliberate territorial claim upon time itself through sound. It is the honey-thick vowel of a Southern summer, the languid cadence of a story told from a porch swing, or the weary, aristocratic extension of a single syllable of judgment—a vocalization of resistance against the world's accelerating tick, a declaration that time is a currency one can afford to spend on sound.
noun
- A way of speaking slowly while lengthening vowel sounds and running words together, characteristic of some Southern US accents, as well as Broad Australian, Broad New Zealand, and Scots.
verb
- To drag on slowly and heavily; to dawdle or while away time indolently.
- To utter or pronounce in a dull, spiritless tone, as if by dragging out the utterance.
- To move slowly and heavily; to move in a dull, slow, lazy manner.“Tush, tush, Tarleton, Kemp, nor Singer, nor all the litter of Fooles that now come drawling behinde them, neuer plaid the Clownes more naturally then the arrantest Sot of you all, shall, if hee will but boyle my Instructions in his brainepan.”
- To speak with a slow, spiritless utterance, as from affectation, laziness, or lack of interest.“talk sometimes a pestilence , and sometimes a hero , mostly in a drawling and dreaming way about it”