drogue

Etymology

Uncertain; probably related to drag in some way.

noun

1. (whaling) A floating object attached to the end of a harpoon line to slow a whale down and prevent it from diving.
   through the sash window I could see the black truck pulling up the drive towards the main road, the silver caravan coming behind like a drogue that was preventing the gypsies from submerging, escaping into the very centre of the earth. 1993, Will Self, My Idea of Fun
2. (nautical) A type of bag pulled behind a boat to stop it from broaching to.
3. (aeronautics) A conical parachute used as a brake for some kinds of aircraft, or as a means of extracting and deploying a larger parachute, or to slow a rapidly-moving vehicle to a speed where it can safely deploy a larger parachute.
4. (aeronautics) A conical basket or device used variously as a target for gunnery practice, and as a docking point for aerial refuelling.
5. A wind cone.

verb

1. To harpoon or spear (a whale) with a weapon that has a drogue attached.
   The old whalesman was not long aboard before getting confirmed in his conjecture that the ship was the same whose boats had harpooned and “drogued” the cachalot', the carcass of which had been encountered by the Catamaran. 1865, Mayne Reid, The Ocean Waifs: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea, page 363
   Although the Inuit were quick to adapt to the use of the whaleboat and new whaling methods, they retained certain elements of their aboriginal technology, and on May 1st all hands aboard the Cemma" spent the day 'making drogues (niutang) for the natives' boats to drogue fish with' ( Ross 1985b : 165 ). 1997, Marc Stevenson, Inuit, Whalers, and Cultural Persistence, page 80
   Even before the formal, specialized pursuit of large whales solidified into a seasonal enterprise (which had certainly occurred in the Bay of Biscay by the eleventh century, and quite possibly earlier in Northeastern Asia, or among Pacific or Caribbean island peoples), the spearing or droguing of animals encountered in the course of other activities—like sealing or fishing—would have been relatively common. 2017, Imre Szeman, Jennifer Wenzel, Patricia Yaeger, Fueling Culture
2. To use a drogue with.
   Here this type was drogued at 30m by a 11.85 m parachute while the other types were not drogued. 1977, A.D. Kirwan, Jr., G. McNally, M.S. Chang, R. Molinari, “The Effect of Wind and Surface Currents on Drifters”, in Journal of Physical Oceanography, volume 5, page 353
   Moreover, droguing the drifter to some depth will not necessarily help. 1994, Anand Gnanadesikan, Dynamics of Langmuir Circulation in Oceanic Surface Layers, page 306
   These surface buoys are drogued to drift with the currents at a target depth around 15 m (Fig. 1.3A), to avoid drifting with currents very close to the surface. 2021, Robert Marsh, Erik van Sebille, Ocean Currents: Physical Drivers in a Changing World, page 8
3. To act as a drogue, slowing down and stabilizing a drifting object.
   Four drifters were deployed that drogued at 100 m by a 9.2-m personnel parachute off the island of Kyushu. 1982, A.D. Kirwan, “Tracking the Kuroshio”, in Nimbus 6 Random Access Measurement System Applications Experiments, page 21
   If a dinghy were to fall from its container, out of sequence, it is still problematic whether the result would be to foul the flap and set up an unstable condition, or whether the result would drogue back and upwards sufficiently to foul the elevator horn balance. 2013, Phil Tomaselli, Air Force Lives: A Guide for Family Historians, page 148
   Take in the mizzen altogether, and put up the storm jib! Aye, and set the sea-anchor droguing! 2015, Ralph Demers, Sand Dollars, page xiii
4. To transport small loads along the coastline to larger ports, where they can be added to the cargo of larger ships that make longer journeys.
   In the East India Free Trade, the same custom is creeping in, many mercantile houses keeping small brigs constantly in the country droguing, that is, collecting freights for their large ships, which themselves only go to the head ports. 1829, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, page 247
   The merchants in Auckland send schooners and small brigs to 'drogue' for wheat along the coast; and thus the harvest finds its way to market. September 5, 1857, Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts, number 192, page 174
   Backwards and forwards across the North Atlantic to Quebec in summer, and to the Gulf Ports in winter, she had been faithfully droguing timber for them for several seasons, her windmill-pump steadily going and the owners' profits accumulating. 1899, Frank T. Bullen, “The Derelict”, in The Living Age, volume 220, page 309