Despite Mr. Arafat's threat to declare a Palestinian state and the emerging image of his being almost dragged to the summit, administration officials said they believed that the Palestinian leader preferred to have a state recognized by Israel.
So when Mr. Obama agreed this week for the first time to send small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebel forces, he had to be almost dragged into the decision at a time when critics, some advisers and even Bill Clinton were pressing for more action.
Twenty years ago, my club, Doncaster Rovers, were almost dragged into extinction by an owner who tried to burn down our ground.
He had but just time to cry out, 'Clear away the line,' — 'O dear!' when he was almost cut asunder, dragged overboard, and never seen afterwards," though the whale was safely caught.
'Once I was almost discovered as Serbian soldiers dragged the women off the bus to rape them.' With the help of human smugglers who secured forged identity papers, Alic fled to Denmark, where he was granted asylum.
The extremely long range of the guns (35 km had been the previous range limit for shellfire) was achieved by sending the shells on a trajectory 39 km (24 miles) up into the stratosphere, where atmospheric drag was almost nonexistent.
I think it was almost like a kind of drag renaissance.
In previous studies, the drag coefficient was almost constant despite the changes in velocity.
It was almost Christmas; the President's policy reviews had dragged on for nearly half a year.
The men in the audience, many of them wearing wigs and barrel bloomers (they're almost in drag themselves), go mad for Kynaston; the women are titillated and entertained.
