Quranic root
درج
d · r · j
The root centers on passing onward and progressing through a course or sequence.
From this orientation come walking and movement along a path, stages and degrees of ascent, gradual advancement, and related expressions of proceeding step by step. A separate lexical branch concerns folding, covering, and enclosing.
- Maqāyīs · row 1737
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 20
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
اِسْتَدْرَجَ
āistadraja
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form X
- Form
- X
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To draw or lead on by degrees; to bring nearer step by step.
In the Quranic construction, the gradual movement is understood as taking or leading people little by little rather than suddenly; it may be described as progressive drawing-on toward a subsequent outcome.
- Lane · entry 502
- Mufradāt · row 465
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:182word 4
“We will gradually lead them”
Quran 68:44word 6
“We will progressively lead them”
To lead someone gradually toward destruction or punishment while allowing respite and continued enjoyment, so that the person remains unaware.
The Quranic usage concerns divine action toward people who do not perceive the process; respite, continuing favors, or renewed opportunity can form the means of their gradual approach to ruin.
- Lane · entry 502
- Mufradāt · row 465
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:182word 4
“We will gradually lead them”
Quran 68:44word 6
“We will progressively lead them”
To fold people away metaphorically by neglecting or leaving them unmindful.
This is an alternative Quran-focused interpretation of the construction استدرجهم, using the image of folding a written sheet rather than describing the process primarily as gradual approach.
- Mufradāt · row 465
دَرَجَة
darajah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 18 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A degree, level, or rank in an ascending order or hierarchy.
In the Quran, the word is used for comparative standing or status among people and before God; the plural may be rendered as degrees, ranks, or levels.
- Lane · entry 507
- Mufradāt · row 465
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:228دَرَجَةٌۭ ۗ(is) a degree
- 2:253دَرَجَـٰتٍۢ ۚ(in) degrees
- 3:163دَرَجَـٰتٌ(are in varying) degrees
- 4:95دَرَجَةًۭ ۚ(in) rank
- 4:96دَرَجَـٰتٍۢRanks
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 58 Classical meanings
دَرَجَ
To walk or go on foot, step by step; of a child, to begin walking; of an old person or child, to move slowly, weakly, softly, or gently.
The same verb can describe slow or leisurely movement and, in a specialized usage, the movement of a lizard or certain bird.
- Lane · entry 497
دَرَجَ
To pass away, perish, or die; also, to go away or leave no offspring.
The expression may refer simply to death or to death without surviving progeny, depending on the construction.
- Lane · entry 497
دَرَجَتْ
Of a she-camel, to go beyond the expected year from covering without giving birth.
This is a specialized description of delayed parturition.
- Lane · entry 497
دَرَجَتِ الرِّيحُ
Of wind, to leave marks or lines on sand, or to drive pebbles along the ground.
The movement may be understood through the traces or ripples left on the surface and the passage of the pebbles.
- Lane · entry 497
دَرِجَ
To rise in grade, degree, rank, condition, or station.
This is an intransitive expression of advancement in status or position.
- Lane · entry 497
دَرِجَ
To keep to the plain and manifest way in religion or speech.
The meaning concerns following an evident course or manner.
- Lane · entry 497
دَرِجَ
To continue eating the bird called دُرَّاج.
A specialized lexical usage associated with the name of the bird.
- Lane · entry 497
دَرَّجَ
To make someone walk step by step or slowly; intransitively, to walk much.
It is used especially of helping a child or an old person to walk with a weak or gradual gait.
- Lane · entry 498
دَرَّجَ
To bring someone nearer by degrees, or to raise someone from one grade or station to another gradually.
The construction commonly expresses movement toward an object, affair, or higher station little by little.
- Lane · entry 498
دَرَّجَ
To accustom or habituate someone to something.
This is a figurative development of gradual introduction or progression.
- Lane · entry 498
دَرَّجَ
To feed a convalescent little by little until the person returns to the former amount of food.
The gradual increase is specifically associated with feeding during recovery from illness.
- Lane · entry 498
دَرَّجَنِي
Of food, grain, or an affair, to be beyond or to baffle one's ability to attain or accomplish.
The construction presents the object as exceeding the subject's capacity.
- Lane · entry 498
دَرَّجَ
To imitate the cry of the bird called دُرَّاج.
A specialized lexical usage, distinct from the causative walking sense.
- Lane · entry 498
أَدْرَجَ
To cause people to pass away or perish; to destroy someone.
The destructive transitive usage may be specified by the means, such as destruction with a sword.
- Lane · entry 499
أَدْرَجَتِ النَّاقَةُ
Of a she-camel, to become lank in the belly so that the fore girth and load shift backward toward the hind girth.
A specialized description of the position of a camel's belly-girth and load.
- Lane · entry 499
أَدْرَجَ الدَّلْوَ
To draw up a bucket gently or little by little.
The construction expresses gradual, controlled upward movement.
- Lane · entry 499
أَدْرَجَ
To chant quickly, continuously, or without interruption.
The usage applies to chanting the iqāmah and, in later usage, to trilling or quavering performance.
- Lane · entry 499
إِدْرَاجٌ
To join words together in speech without pausing.
The construction contrasts with stopping or pausing between words.
- Lane · entry 499
أَدْرَجَ
To fold, roll up, infold, enclose, insert, or wrap one thing in another; also to insert material into a composition.
The object may be a writing, garment, cloth, or other thing; the derived figurative usage includes foisting a verse into a poem.
- Lane · entry 499
أَدْرَجَ بِالنَّاقَةِ
To bind a she-camel's teats with a wrapped piece of material.
A specialized camel-management usage.
- Lane · entry 499
تَدَرَّجَ
To progress, advance, or draw near by degrees.
The verb is intransitive or takes a goal and emphasizes successive movement through stages; it can also mean becoming accustomed gradually.
- Lane · entry 500
اِنْدَرَجَ
To become folded, rolled up, infolded, or wrapped.
The verb describes the subject as undergoing enclosure or folding.
- Lane · entry 501
اِنْدَرَجَ
To be involved, implied, included, or classed as subordinate within something.
The construction may express inclusion in a larger category or subordination under it.
- Lane · entry 501
اِسْتَدْرَجَ
To cause something or someone to move slowly or gradually.
The usage includes making a mechanism move slowly and causing someone to creep or proceed gently.
- Lane · entry 502
اِسْتَدْرَجَ
To deceive or beguile someone into proceeding with an affair from which the person had held back.
The construction emphasizes inducing continued action through deception or enticement.
- Lane · entry 502
اِسْتَدْرَجَتِ النَّاقَةُ وَلَدَهَا
Of a she-camel, to invite her young one to follow her after casting it forth.
A specialized description of a she-camel inducing a displaced young one to follow.
- Lane · entry 502
اِسْتَدْرَجَتِ الرِّيحُ الحَصَا
Of wind, to make pebbles travel along the ground as though moving by themselves.
The pebbles remain on the surface rather than being lifted into the air.
- Lane · entry 502
اِسْتِدْرَاجٌ
The drawing forth of speech or words from the mouth.
A verbal-noun usage concerning eliciting speech.
- Lane · entry 502
دَرْجٌ
A scroll, folded writing, or writing material that is folded or rolled up.
The word can denote the writing itself, the paper on which it is written, or a thing used to contain writing; being inside a writing means being enclosed or included in it.
- Lane · entry 503
دُرْجٌ
A small receptacle in which a woman keeps perfumes and personal implements.
A specialized noun for a small container or case.
- Lane · entry 504
دَرَجٌ
A way, road, path, route, or course along which one goes or through which things pass.
The word can also denote a road's main part, a cross-road, a bend, or a path through a hill; related expressions describe returning by the way one came or following a course.
- Lane · entry 505
دَرَجٌ
A mediator between two people for the purpose of reconciliation.
A figurative extension of the idea of a way or means between parties.
- Lane · entry 505
دَرَجُ يَدَيْكَ
Submissive or obedient to someone.
This fixed expression does not normally take dual or plural forms in the relevant predicative usage.
- Lane · entry 505
دَرَجُ الرَّمْلِ
Ripples or visible tracks on sand or water produced by movement or wind.
The noun refers to surface patterns rather than to a route.
- Lane · entry 505
دُرْجَةٌ
A rolled bundle of rags or similar material inserted into a she-camel's vulva as a decoy, so that she takes it for her young and accepts another young one.
A specialized pastoral practice; the object is removed and used to stimulate the she-camel's recognition and acceptance of a substitute young one.
- Lane · entry 506
دُرْجَةٌ
A rag or cotton-filled insert used medicinally in a she-camel's vulva or by a woman during menstruation.
The medical or menstrual use is distinct from the camel-decoy practice but involves a similarly rolled or stuffed piece of material.
- Lane · entry 506
دَرَجَةٌ
A single stair or step, and by extension a staircase or ladder used for ascent.
The concrete sense is extended to a series of steps and to stages upward.
- Lane · entry 507
دَرَجَةٌ دَرَجَةٌ
A degree or stage in a process; gradually, by degrees.
The reduplicated expression emphasizes successive progression rather than a social rank.
- Lane · entry 507
دَرَجَةٌ
A degree as a unit of angular measure or of time.
The technical senses include a thirtieth part of a zodiacal sign and a unit of four minutes of time.
- Lane · entry 507
دُرَجَةٌ
A certain small bird resembling the قَطَا, with dark coloring on the inner wings.
A bird-name usage, distinct from the abstract noun degree.
- Lane · entry 508
دُرَّجٌ
Great and difficult affairs or circumstances.
Usually occurs in the expression of falling into such difficulties.
- Lane · entry 511
دَرُوجٌ
Of a wind, swift in its course or leaving a trailing track on sand; also said of an arrow.
Accounts differ over whether swiftness or the track left by the moving object is central to the description.
- Lane · entry 510
دَرَّاجٌ
One who creeps among people with calumny; a frequent slanderer.
The figurative sense draws on creeping movement and applies to a person who spreads defamatory speech.
- Lane · entry 513
الدَّرَّاجُ
The hedgehog.
The animal name is explained by its habit of creeping through the night.
- Lane · entry 513
دُرَّاجٌ
A bird such as the francolin, heath-cock, rail, or attagen, marked with dark and light spots.
The exact bird identification varies in the lexical descriptions; the word is a bird name rather than a motion verb.
- Lane · entry 514
دِرِّيجٌ
A stringed musical instrument resembling a ṭunbūr.
A specialized instrument noun.
- Lane · entry 515
دَرَّاجَةٌ
A go-cart or support on which a child or old person leans while walking slowly.
The device assists someone who is beginning to walk or who has a weak gait.
- Lane · entry 516
دَرَّاجَةٌ
A siege engine or covered structure beneath which men enter while besieging a place.
A technical military noun distinct from the walking support.
- Lane · entry 516
دَارِجٌ
A boy who has begun to walk slowly and has grown beyond the weaning stage.
A specialized participial description of a child's developmental stage.
- Lane · entry 518
دَارِجٌ
Dust driven by wind so as to cover and pass over the traces of dwellings.
The noun describes wind-borne dust and its effect on visible remains.
- Lane · entry 518
دَارِجٌ
The trilling, quavering, or quick part of a piece of music, song, or chant.
A later or current musical usage.
- Lane · entry 518
دَارِجٌ
Current, ordinary, or in general use; hence modern or colloquial speech.
The expression الدارج or الكلام الدارج refers to contemporary Arabic usage.
- Lane · entry 518
دَارِجَةٌ
A leg of a beast or a person.
The singular is given for the plural دَوَارِجُ in this specialized lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 519
مُدْرَجٌ
A verse or passage foisted or inserted spuriously into a poem.
This is a figurative passive-participial noun based on insertion into a larger composition.
- Lane · entry 522
مُدْرِجٌ
A she-camel that has gone beyond the year from covering without giving birth.
A specialized description of delayed gestation or parturition.
- Lane · entry 523
مُدْرِجٌ
A she-camel whose fore girth has slipped backward toward the hind girth.
The sense concerns the camel's body and the position of its girth and load.
- Lane · entry 523
مَدْرَجَةٌ
Land in which the bird called دُرَّاج is found.
A specialized place noun derived from the bird name.
- Lane · entry 524
مِدْرَاجٌ
A she-camel accustomed to go beyond the year without giving birth, or exceeding it by a few days.
The described excess is limited in the lexical account to a small number of days.
- Lane · entry 526
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form X Quran usage has more than one explicitly reported interpretation: gradual drawing-on toward an outcome, gradual leading toward destruction through respite and favors, and a metaphor of folding away through neglect. These are retained as distinct but related senses.
Some Classical entries preserve specialized camel, bird, anatomical, technical, and dialectal usages that are not Quranic meanings.