Arraste

Arraste is a Portuguese term derived from the verb arrastar, meaning to pull or drag. As a noun, arraste denotes the action or result of dragging something along a surface or through a medium. It is commonly used in everyday language to describe movements that require effort to pull or tow an object, such as dragging a heavy box across the floor or pulling a vehicle with a rope.

In technical contexts, the noun most often used for the resistance experienced by a body moving through a fluid is arrasto rather than arraste. Therefore, arraste tends to appear in non-technical, colloquial, or regional usages, or in phrases where the emphasis is on the act of dragging itself rather than on a quantified physical quantity. Some texts may treat arraste as a synonym of arrasto, but modern standard Portuguese generally reserves arrasto for the scientific concept.

Common expressions involving arraste include descriptions of manual tasks (for example, dragging a piece of furniture), or idiomatic uses that convey slow, reluctant motion. The word retains flexibility in everyday speech, supporting both concrete acts of pulling and metaphorical senses of being pulled along by circumstances.

See also: arrastar, arrasto, arrastamento.