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What (who) is drift - definition
WIKIMEDIA DISAMBIGUATION PAGE
DRIFT; Drift (disambiguation); Drift (album); Drifts; Drift (2013 film); Drift (film); The Drift (disambiguation); Drift (song)
drift
I
n. (colloq.)
meaning
to get the drift
II
v.
1) (d; intr.) to drift into (to drift into a life of crime)
2) (D; intr.) to drift with (to drift with the current)
drift
(drifts, drifting, drifted)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
When something drifts somewhere, it is carried there by the movement of wind or water.
We proceeded to drift on up the river...
The waves became rougher as they drifted.
VERB: V adv/prep, V
2.
If someone or something drifts into a situation, they get into that situation in a way that is not planned or controlled.
We need to offer young people drifting into crime an alternative set of values...
There is a general sense that the country and economy alike are drifting.
VERB: V prep/adv, V
3.
If you say that someone drifts around, you mean that they travel from place to place without a plan or settled way of life.
You've been drifting from job to job without any real commitment.
VERB: V prep/adv [disapproval]
4.
A drift is a movement away from somewhere or something, or a movement towards somewhere or something different.
...the drift towards the cities.
N-COUNT: usu N prep
5.
To drift somewhere means to move there slowly or gradually.
As rural factories shed labour, people drift towards the cities.
VERB: V prep
6.
If sounds drift somewhere, they can be heard but they are not very loud.
Cool summer dance sounds are drifting from the stereo indoors.
VERB: V prep/adv
7.
If snow drifts, it builds up into piles as a result of the movement of the wind.
The snow, except where it drifted, was only calf-deep...
VERB: V
8.
A drift is a mass of snow that has built up into a pile as a result of the movement of wind.
...a nine-foot snow drift.
N-COUNT
9.
The drift of an argument or speech is the general point that is being made in it.
Grace was beginning to get his drift...
= gist
N-SING: poss N, N of n
Drift
·noun Anything driven at random.
II. Drift ·noun A driving; a violent movement.
III. Drift ·noun In South Africa, a ford in a river.
IV. Drift ·noun That which is driven, forced, or urged along.
V. Drift ·noun A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds.
VI. Drift ·vt To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
VII. Drift ·noun The distance between the two blocks of a tackle.
VIII. Drift ·vt To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.
IX. Drift ·noun The distance through which a current flows in a given time.
X. Drift ·noun Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting.
XI. Drift ·vt To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or sand.
XII. Drift ·noun A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to oblong projectiles.
XIII. Drift ·noun The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments.
XIV. Drift ·noun The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.
XV. Drift ·noun A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.
XVI. Drift ·vi To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts.
XVII. Drift ·noun The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
XVIII. Drift ·noun The distance to which a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes.
XIX. Drift ·noun A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel.
XX. Drift ·adj That causes drifting or that is drifted; movable by wind or currents; as, drift currents; drift ice; drift mud.
XXI. Drift ·noun A slightly tapered tool of steel for enlarging or shaping a hole in metal, by being forced or driven into or through it; a broach.
XXII. Drift ·noun The place in a deep-waisted vessel where the sheer is raised and the rail is cut off, and usually terminated with a scroll, or driftpiece.
XXIII. Drift ·vi To float or be driven along by, or as by, a current of water or air; as, the ship drifted astern; a raft drifted ashore; the balloon drifts slowly east.
XXIV. Drift ·vi to make a drift; to examine a vein or ledge for the purpose of ascertaining the presence of metals or ores; to follow a vein; to Prospect.
XXV. Drift ·noun The difference between the size of a bolt and the hole into which it is driven, or between the circumference of a hoop and that of the mast on which it is to be driven.
XXVI. Drift ·noun The tendency of an act, argument, course of conduct, or the like; object aimed at or intended; intention; hence, also, import or meaning of a sentence or discourse; aim.
XXVII. Drift ·noun A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, ·etc., ·esp. by wind or water; as, a drift of snow, of ice, of sand, and the like.
XXVIII. Drift ·noun A collection of loose earth and rocks, or boulders, which have been distributed over large portions of the earth's surface, especially in latitudes north of forty degrees, by the agency of ice.
XXIX. Drift ·add. ·noun The horizontal component of the pressure of the air on the sustaining surfaces of a flying machine. The lift is the corresponding vertical component, which sustains the machine in the air.
XXX. Drift ·add. ·noun One of the slower movements of oceanic circulation; a general tendency of the water, subject to occasional or frequent diversion or reversal by the wind; as, the easterly drift of the North Pacific.
Examples of use of drift
1. Wind drift was causing all the problems." Wind drift also means that water dropped on a wildfire could miss altogether.
2. Chemical drift It calls for more information on whether chemicals drift into homes – and says buffer zones of a minimum five metres should be created around fields.
3. Those chemicals can drift long distances in the wind.
4. Most of them are expected to drift towards Mr Humala.
5. But the system continued drift in a south–westerly direction.