English
draw up
Verb

draw up (third-person singular simple present draws up, present participle drawing up, simple past drew up, past participle drawn up)

  1. (transitive) To compose (a document), especially following a standard form; prepare a plan.
    I asked my lawyer to draw up a new will.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC ↗:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
  2. (transitive) To arrange in order or formation.
    Sergeant, please draw the men up in ranks of three.
  3. (transitive) To cause to come to a halt.
    Draw up the carriage just around the corner!
  4. (intransitive) To come to a halt.
    The tractor drew up alongside the haystack.
    • 1886 January 4, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC ↗:
      As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in hand, to have a morning glass
  5. To withdraw upwards.
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII
      Ere long a bell tinkled, and the curtain drew up. Within the arch, the bulky figure of Sir George Lynn, whom Mr. Rochester had likewise chosen, was seen enveloped in a white sheet.
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