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On the drag

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on November 27, 2006

In Reply to: On the drag posted by Vincent Glading on November 27, 2006

: There's a phrase I'd like to know the origin of, namely "being on the drag" meaning to be running late for something.

: I recently had to attend a business meeting in my company's London office but, not surprisingly, the train was delayed. So I rang my colleague in London to say "I was on the drag and would be there as soon as I could". My colleague (who is a Londoner) had no idea what I meant, and when I arrived at the meeting he said he had wondered whether I was going to turn up in a dress and high heels!!

: I live in Ipswich, Suffolk and "on the drag" is something you hear people saying regularly around here. Bearing in mind my London colleague's confusion, I suppose the phrase's use might be unique to my part of the country, but I wonder if a) you have heard it before, and b) if you know its origin.
Just to say that I'm a Londoner born and bred, living in Kent for the last 12 years, and I had never heard of it till your post; so I suspect that it may be very specific to East Anglia. (VSD)

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