drift
Forms
- Plural
- drifts
- present (v1)
- drift
- past (v2)
- drifted
- past participle (v3)
- drifted
- present participle
- drifting
- 3rd person singular
- drifts
Definitions
1.Movement; that which moves or is moved.
- Drifts of rising dust involve the sky.
- Some log perhaps upon the waters swam, a useless drift.
- The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings.
2.A place (a ford) along a river where the water is shallow enough to permit crossing to the opposite side.
3.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.
- Besides, you lack the brains to catch my drift. / If I explained you wouldn't understand.
4.The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
- A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose.
1.To move slowly, especially pushed by currents of water, air, etc.
- The boat drifted away from the shore.
- The balloon was drifting in the breeze.
- One day I was out in the barn and he drifted in. I was currying the horse and he set down on the wheelbarrow and begun to ask questions.
2.To move haphazardly without any destination.
- He drifted from town to town, never settling down.
3.To deviate gently from the intended direction of travel.
- This car tends to drift left at high speeds.
- Midway through the half, Argentine Tevez did begin to drift inside in order to exert his influence but by this stage Mick McCarthy's side had gone 1-0 up and looked comfortable.
4.To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4355
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English drift, dryft (“act of driving, drove, shower of rain or snow, impulse”), from Old English *drift (“drift”), from Proto-Germanic *driftiz (“drift”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”).