See drag the chain in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "The term stems from the railway industry when chains and hooks connected the carriages or goods trucks. If the rear chain came loose from the secured position, it would then drag on the ground slowing progress.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "drags the chain",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "dragging the chain",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "dragged the chain",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "dragged the chain",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "drag the chain (third-person singular simple present drags the chain, present participle dragging the chain, simple past and past participle dragged the chain)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "drag-chain"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "34 33 33",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "34 36 30",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "34 37 30",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To fall behind relative to others."
],
"id": "en-drag_the_chain-en-verb-aESkyojW",
"links": [
[
"fall behind",
"fall behind"
],
[
"relative",
"relative"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, idiomatic) To fall behind relative to others."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "34 33 33",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "34 36 30",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "34 37 30",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To unwittingly hold up progress."
],
"id": "en-drag_the_chain-en-verb-839~2a6e",
"links": [
[
"unwittingly",
"unwittingly"
],
[
"hold up",
"hold up"
],
[
"progress",
"progress"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, idiomatic) To unwittingly hold up progress."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "34 33 33",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "34 36 30",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "34 37 30",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To deliberately hold up progress by acting slowly."
],
"id": "en-drag_the_chain-en-verb-IRawh49L",
"links": [
[
"deliberately",
"deliberately"
],
[
"hold up",
"hold up"
],
[
"progress",
"progress"
],
[
"act",
"act"
],
[
"slowly",
"slowly"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, idiomatic) To deliberately hold up progress by acting slowly."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
]
}
],
"word": "drag the chain"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_text": "The term stems from the railway industry when chains and hooks connected the carriages or goods trucks. If the rear chain came loose from the secured position, it would then drag on the ground slowing progress.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "drags the chain",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "dragging the chain",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "dragged the chain",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "dragged the chain",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "drag the chain (third-person singular simple present drags the chain, present participle dragging the chain, simple past and past participle dragged the chain)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "drag-chain"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English informal terms"
],
"glosses": [
"To fall behind relative to others."
],
"links": [
[
"fall behind",
"fall behind"
],
[
"relative",
"relative"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, idiomatic) To fall behind relative to others."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English informal terms"
],
"glosses": [
"To unwittingly hold up progress."
],
"links": [
[
"unwittingly",
"unwittingly"
],
[
"hold up",
"hold up"
],
[
"progress",
"progress"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, idiomatic) To unwittingly hold up progress."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English informal terms"
],
"glosses": [
"To deliberately hold up progress by acting slowly."
],
"links": [
[
"deliberately",
"deliberately"
],
[
"hold up",
"hold up"
],
[
"progress",
"progress"
],
[
"act",
"act"
],
[
"slowly",
"slowly"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(informal, idiomatic) To deliberately hold up progress by acting slowly."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"informal"
]
}
],
"word": "drag the chain"
}
Download raw JSONL data for drag the chain meaning in English (2.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.