Word.ws English Dictionary

dragline

Syllables: drag·lineUK/ˈdɹæɡlaɪn/

dragline noun: a cable, cord, or rope used to drag an object; specifically, the line of a dragline excavator that drags the bucket. Also the ellipsis of dragline excavator.

Noun

dragline (plural draglines)

  1. A cable, cord, or rope used to drag an object; specifically, the line of a dragline excavator that drags the bucket.
    • Drainboard had been terrified by a narrow escape from the jumping spider's dragline. He had twisted it twice around her cerci and told her, "Your new name is Supper, for that's what you will be in a few hours. My supper."1990, Mary James [pseudonym; Marijane Meaker], chapter 10, in Shoebag (An Apple Paperback), New York, N.Y.: Scholastic, →ISBN, page 72
    • De Gier had rowed out to where the yacht was anchored, fished up the anchor with a dragline, ascertained that the anchor cable had been cut.1994, Janwillem van de Wetering, chapter 19, in Just a Corpse at Twilight (A Grijpstra and De Gier Investigation), New York, N.Y.: Soho Press, →ISBN
  2. A strong supporting line of silk produced by a spider.

Also used as

dragline is also the ellipsis of dragline excavator.

Examples of dragline in a sentence

  • A dragline excavator has a large cutting bucket suspended from the end of a boom.2003, “Earthmoving Machinery”, in Wendy Horobin, editor, How It Works: Science and Technology, 3rd edition, volume 5, Tarrytown, N.Y....
  • Spiders rely on silk "draglines" to become airborne and for subsequent transport.2014, Hugh Dingle, “Migration, Winds, and Currents”, in Migration: The Biology of Life on the Move, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford...

Forms of dragline

pluraldraglines

Origin of dragline

From drag + line.

Phrases with dragline

Questions about dragline

What does dragline mean?
Dragline means a cable, cord, or rope used to drag an object; specifically, the line of a dragline excavator that drags the bucket.
How do you use dragline in a sentence?
A dragline excavator has a large cutting bucket suspended from the end of a boom.
What part of speech is dragline?
Dragline is a noun.
How do you pronounce dragline?
Dragline is pronounced /ˈdɹæɡlaɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of dragline?
The plural of dragline is draglines.

Words near dragline in the dictionary

  1. Dragicevich
  2. dragless
  3. draglessness
  4. draglift
  5. draglifts
  6. dragline
  7. dragline excavator
  8. dragline excavators
  9. draglines
  10. dragling
  11. draglings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dragline (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dragline.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dragline. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.