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drag out

B1 neutral separable transitive
In simple words

To make something take more time than it needs to, or to pull someone out of somewhere roughly.

Literal meaning: To pull something out by dragging it.

Meanings

1 B1 idiomatic neutral

To make a process, event, or activity last much longer than is necessary.

"Don't drag out the goodbye — you're making it harder for everyone."

Grammar: separable
2 B1 neutral

To pull someone or something out of a place forcibly or with difficulty.

"Firefighters dragged the man out of the burning building."

Grammar: separable
3 B2 idiomatic informal

To obtain information from someone with great difficulty.

"It took all morning to drag out the full story from him."

Grammar: separable
Usage notes

Has both a physical and figurative sense. The figurative sense (prolonging something) is very common. The physical sense (pulling something out forcibly) is also natural. Both are frequent in everyday English.

Commonly used with

process meeting negotiation speech body information secret

Forms

Base
drag out
I/you/we/they
3rd person
drags out
he/she/it
Past simple
draged out
yesterday
Past participle
draged out
have + pp
-ing form
draging out
continuous

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