Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DRAIN, v.t. [Sax. drehnigean, to drain, to strain. This may be a derivative from the root of draw. Qu. Sax. drygan, to dry.]

1. To filter; to cause to pass through some porous substance. Salt water, drained through twenty vessels of earth, hath become fresh. – Bacon.
2. To empty or clear of liquor, by causing the liquor to drop or run off slowly; as, to drain a vessel or its contents.
3. To make dry; to exhaust of water or other liquor, by causing it to flow off in channels, or through porous substances; as, to drain land; to drain a swamp or marsh.
4. To empty; to exhaust; to draw off gradually; as, a foreign war drains a country of a specie.