What does drained mean in cooking?

Answer 1

It means letting the fluid to drain away from the food in questions. Draining canned vegetables means pouring off the water they are packed in. Draining browned beef means pouring off the fat from the browned meat.

Answer 2

To drain means to get rid of excess moisture - it's also the name of a kitchen tool made for this purpose, which is a metal bowl with holes in it. As an example, if you clean lettuce with water, it's going to be far too wet to use in a salad - so you can leave it to drain, allowing all the water to fall off until it's mostly dry again.