Learn English – What’s the meaning of “what’s the draw”

meaning

I watched the TV serials How I Met Your Mother. And the phrase came out when Robin said,

"What? I mean, I don't hate kids.

I'm-I'm just not a kid person.

I mean, yeah, it's cute that their shoes are real little, but beyond that, what's the draw?

You must think I'm nuts."

I've google the phrase but the best result I had it's this yahoo answer: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110721200654AALrS17, which I don't think quite fit in here.

Best Answer

One meaning of the word "draw" is to pull in various directions, as in a horse-drawn carriage, i.e, one pulled along by a horse. Or consider that a chimney sweep will tell you that

Chimneys often draw at least a small amount of air, even when there is no fire below....

That is, a chimney will pull up air from the fireplace room and out of the house even when there's no fire lit.

In a figurative sense, if the meaning is pull towards, then the person feeling the force of the pull will feel an attraction. Thus from Terry Brooks' The Elf Queen of Shannara:

She could feel the draw of two choices, very different, each compelling.

Two choices, each with its own attraction. And that's the meaning of the sitcom line, "What's the draw?" namely, "What's the attraction of having children around?"