This morning English Dad asked me to draw the curtains. I looked at him, bewildered. They were already shut.
He mistook my confusion for belligerence.
"Aren't you the one who closed them last night? Will you please draw them before you leave today?"
The penny dropped.
"Ah," I said. "Sorry, I was just doing a bit of inner translating there. At home we say 'draw' only in reference to closing the curtains. We say 'open' the curtains if we want to open them."
That's what I've always said, anyway.
I brought the subject up at the meeting I attended this morning. Of the 12 Brits in the room, 10 use "draw the curtains" interchangeably to mean open or close, while only two agreed with me that "draw" is an exclusive term for closing them.
Yet another example of how the smallest, idiosyncratic detail can lead to actual misunderstandings.
I would have to confess to being counted with the 10 people from your poll who draw the curtains both ways. But while we are on the subject of drawing... I always thought it weird how Americans 'draw' a bath.