What is 'draw on'
This question was asked earlier (not by me), but closed and deleted by a mod. But I thought it was interesting, because I didn't know the answer. So I'm reposting it....
The verb phrasal 'draw on' seems to have two conflicting definitions:
dictionary 1
to come closer in time "It became colder as night drew on."dictionary 2
(of a period of time) pass by and approach its end:
"he remembered sitting in silence with his grandmother as evening drew on"
How is 'draw on' used by native speakers?
...that's the original. Here's my own additional research from OED:
draw B.VI.70 To draw near or approach in time.
draw in B.VII.82.f Of a day or evening: To draw to a close, to close in. Also of a succession of evenings in late summer and autumn: To become gradually shorter (as if contracting or shrinking in).
draw on B.VII.86.d To advance, approach, draw nigh.
86.e To draw near to death, be in a dying state.
So, to restate the original question, which of these does as night drew on mean? (I've no idea!)
1 as night approached
2 as night passed
3 as night drew to a close
These definitions and examples (except draw in, which is a somewhat different idiom) have a common theme:
- It grew colder as night drew on ... as nightfall came closer and closer
- sitting in silence with his grandmother as evening drew on ... as evening advanced toward nightfall
- the sultry night drew on toward one o'clock ... progressed gradually toward one o'clock
- He lay (as some say) drawing on Untill his breath and all were past and gone ... (this is a citation for OED 86.3) he lingered on his deathbed until he died
I think it's fair to say that draw on means, at bottom, “advance gradually”—usually with a sense of advancing inexorably, too, and often toward some goal, implicit or explicit. The finer distinctions are just imaginative ways people have found to employ the phrase.
And it should be noted that these are just the intransitive uses; OED also distinguishes three transitives (none very closely related to the intransitives).
But given that OED offers 70-some-odd different meanings of bare draw, perhaps we should be surprised that draw on has so few.
At any rate, in my experience, night drew on is usually a stock phrase for “night gradually approached”—it got darker and darker. But it might mean any of those other things, too.
To draw in this sense means
to come or go steadily or gradually
Night draws on is not ambiguous and means it is currently night and nighttime we continue to progress through the nighttime period. You can add 'to a close' if you specifically want to point out that it's getting toward morning.
Night draws [near/nigh] means it is not currently night, but nighttime approaches. One might also say it is drawing toward night to indicate nighttime approaches.
It all comes from draw's base meaning of to pull, as night (or time in general) is pulled along inexorably.