Drift word meaning and definition

[noun] (mining) a horizontal (or nearly horizontal) passageway in a mine; "they dug a drift parallel with the vein"
[noun] general meaning or tenor; "caught the drift of the conversation"
[noun] a general tendency to change (as of opinion); "not openly liberal but that is the trend of the book"; "a broad movement of the electorate to the right"
[noun] something heaped up by the wind or current
[noun] a force that moves something along
[noun] the gradual departure from an intended course due to external influences (as a ship or plane)
[noun] a process of linguistic change over a period of time
[verb] be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of wind or a current; "snow drifting several feet high"; "sand drifting like snow"
[verb] be subject to fluctuation; "The stock market drifted upward"
[verb] drive slowly and far afield for grazing; "drift the cattle herds westwards"
[verb] cause to be carried by a current; "drift the boats downstream"
[verb] move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment; "The gypsies roamed the woods"; "roving vagabonds"; "the wandering Jew"; "The cattle roam across the prairie"; "the laborers drift from one town to the next"
[verb] be in motion due to some air or water current; "The leaves were blowing in the wind"; "the boat drifted on the lake"; "The sailboat was adrift on the open sea"; "the shipwrecked boat drifted away from the shore"
[verb] move in an unhurried fashion; "The unknown young man drifted among the invited guests"
[verb] wander from a direct course or at random; "The child strayed from the path and her parents lost sight of her"; "don't drift from the set course"
[verb] live unhurriedly, irresponsibly, or freely; "My son drifted around for years in California before going to law school"
[verb] vary or move from a fixed point or course; "stock prices are drifting higher"

\Drift\, n. [From {drive}; akin to LG. & D. drift a driving, Icel. drift snowdrift, Dan. drift, impulse, drove, herd, pasture, common, G. trift pasturage, drove. See {Drive}.] 1. A driving; a violent movement. The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings. --King Alisaunder (1332). 2. 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. --South. 3. Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting. ``Our drift was south.'' --Hakluyt. 4. 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. He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general. -- Addison. Now thou knowest my drift. --Sir W. Scott. 5. That which is driven, forced, or urged along; as:
(a) Anything driven at random. ``Some log . . . a useless drift.'' --Dryden.
(b) 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. Drifts of rising dust involve the sky. -- Pope. We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift [of ice]. --Kane.
(c) A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds. [Obs.] Cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drift doing much damage to the high ways). -- Fuller. 6. (Arch.) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments. [R.] --Knight. 7. (Geol.) 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. 8. In South Africa, a ford in a river. 9. (Mech.) 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. 10. (Mil.)
(a) A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.
(b) A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to oblong projectiles. 11. (Mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel. 12. (Naut.)
(a) The distance through which a current flows in a given time.
(b) The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.
(c) The distance to which a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes.
(d) 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.
(e) The distance between the two blocks of a tackle. 13. 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. Note: Drift is used also either adjectively or as the first part of a compound. See {Drift}, a. {Drift of the forest} (O. Eng. Law), an examination or view of the cattle in a forest, in order to see whose they are, whether they are commonable, and to determine whether or not the forest is surcharged. --Burrill.
\Drift\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Drifted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Drifting}.] 1. 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. We drifted o'er the harbor bar. -- Coleridge. 2. To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts. 3. (mining) 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. [U.S.]
\Drift\, v. t. 1. To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body. --J. H. Newman. 2. To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or sand. 3. (Mach.) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
\Drift\, a. That causes drifting or that is drifted; movable by wind or currents; as, drift currents; drift ice; drift mud. --Kane. {Drift anchor}. See {Sea anchor}, and also {Drag sail}, under {Drag}, n. {Drift epoch} (Geol.), the glacial epoch. {Drift net}, a kind of fishing net. {Drift sail}. Same as {Drag sail}. See under {Drag}, n.
\Drift\, n. 1. (Phys. Geog.) 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. 2. (A["e]ronautics) 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.

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