drag-chain
(-tʃeɪn)
1. A chain used to retard the motion of a vehicle; esp. ‘a strong chain, with a large hook to hitch on the hind wheel, and keep it from turning when descending a hill’ (Felton Carriages, 1801).
| a 1791 Warton in Boswell Johnson an. 1754 (Visit Oxford) He cried out ‘Sufflamina’..as much as to say, ‘Put on your drag chain’. 1829 Glover Hist. Derby I. 188 On arriving at the top of a steep hill, the carter takes off all his trace horses, and hooks them to the drag chain behind. |
| fig. 1830 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 276 The minister whose melancholy duty it is to act as a drag-chain upon the progress of liberal ideas. 1838 Lytton Alice iii. viii, To take from my wheels the drag-chain of disreputable debt. a 1871 Grote Plato Pref. (1875) 9 The perpetual drag-chain..upon free speculation. |
2. The strong chain by which railway wagons, etc. are coupled: see drag n. 9.