drag path

From drag +‎ path.

drag path (plural drag paths)

1. A path or trail on which something was dragged or moved.
   • 1886, Bombay Natural History Society, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society‎^[1], page 288:

     The specimen was one of a pair in dense bamboo and deciduous scrub jungle bordering a drag-path for logs.

   • 1886, Bombay Natural History Society, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society‎^[2], page 593:

     If, for example, the log is held up by any obstruction along the drag path, the elephant merely uses its brute force to overcome its nd often snaps its drag-chain in the effort.

   • 1919, Michael E. Nelson, Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, The Canadian field-naturalist‎^[3], page 162:

     The carcass was cached in the trail next to two dead conifers ~8 cm in diameter, presumably at the site of death because there was no drag path away from the pursuit trail.

   • 1929, Government of India, Indian Forester‎^[4], page 90:

     The men who come up with the jog keep it under control by means of peavies rolling it when necessary from one side of the drag path to the other in order to avoid any obstructions like projecting stones, tree stumps, etc, that may be in the way. The same men drag down the rope on the return journey and fix it to the next load.

   • 1947, W.N. Warbey, M.P., Eastern World 1947-06: Vol 1 Iss 2‎^[5], page 24:

     If this phase occurred in the rainy season, ten or 12 pairs of buffaloes would be needed to drag the largest of the logs along the muddy, sodden drag-path eight miles to the head-waters of a rocky, tortuous hill stream

   • 1959, H.N. Marshall, Elephant Kingdom‎^[6], page 57:

     Nai Kim, an aged patriarch [...] was waiting for us at the foot of his dragpath. This path which required much cutting into the steep hillside should have been completed, but showed signs of just being started where a few emaciated coolies were picking away with mattocks.

   • 1979, H.M. Hoover, The Rains of Eridan‎^[7], page 105:

     At several spots along the drag path she saw sets of deep claw indentations.

   • 1993, Eighner, Lars, Travels with Lizbeth‎^[8], page 61:

     But as we followed the drag path I found a remarkable number of things intact and unmarked by the fire, shed from the wreck as it was towed away.

   • 2000—, John Skipp, Psychos‎^[9], page 210:

     He was standing with his head bent, looking at the ground, flashing a little pocket flashlight, obviously examining the drag path she had made with her hands and knees when she entered into the pine thicket.

   • 2003, Soren Ervo and Thomas Johansson, Among Men Moulding masculinities‎^[10], page 74:

     He that hasn’t got the head to calculate and see how things should be done; to see how a dragpath or a main road should be drawn so that one can quickly take the most trees from a plot […]

   • 2010, Easton, Robin, Naked in Eden : adventure and awakening in the Australian rainforest‎^[11], pages 171-172:

     When I squatted closer to the ground, I saw a faint drag path in the dirt where something hauled Bandicoot away. […] I started where the drag path left debris on a rock and disappeared

   1. (forestry, timber industry) A skid trail or skid road; a narrow, temporary path created or used by forestry machinery (skidders) to drag felled trees or logs from the stump to a central landing area for processing.
   2. (by extension) (figurative) A trail left behind from struggling, often through hardship, leaving traces of one's journey.
      • 2025, Twenty One Pilots, Tyler Joseph, Breach: Digital Remains:

        A drag path etched in the surface / As evidence I left there on purpose / A sad sack, laying on the surface / Can you find me? / I dug my heels into the gravel / As evidence for you to unravel / A drag path, etched in the surface / Can you find me?

   3. (forensics) A visible trail, mark, or disturbance on the ground or floor indicating that a person, victim, or heavy object was dragged from one location to another; a critical piece of forensic evidence used to reconstruct movements, locate bodies, or identify the path taken by perpetrators.
      • 1972, Levin, Meyer, The Settlers‎^[12], page 812:

        A dragpath of blood went through the double doorway and the hall, where the attackers must have taken away some wounded of their own.

      • 2004, Levitt, Leonard, Conviction : solving the Moxley murder : a reporter and a detective's twenty-year search for justice‎^[13], page 1941:

        A drag path of blood from the two large pools through high grass ended under the pine tree where her body lay.

2. (computing, photoshop) The action of creating or modifying Bézier curves in GIMP by clicking and dragging with the Paths Tool (B), rather than just clicking to make straight lines, allowing the user to interactively bend segments and create smooth curves.