drift

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”). Cognate with North Frisian drift (“drift”), Saterland Frisian Drift (“current, flow, stream, drift”), Dutch drift (“drift, passion, urge”), German Drift (“drift”) and Trift (“drove, pasture”), Swedish drift (“impulse, instinct”), Icelandic drift (“drift, snow-drift”). Related to drive.

• enPR: drĭft, IPA^(key): /dɹɪft/

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• Rhymes: -ɪft

drift (countable and uncountable, plural drifts)

1. (physical) Movement; that which moves or is moved.
   1. (obsolete) A driving; a violent movement.
      • 1332, King Alisaunder (1332)

        The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings.

   2. Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Richard Hakluyt

        Our drift was south.

   3. That which is driven, forced, or urged along.
      • 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:

        The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. […] Drifts of yellow vapour, fiery, parching, stinging, filled the air.

   4. Anything driven at random.
      • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

        Some log […] a useless drift.

   5. A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, etc., especially by wind or water.

      a drift of snow, of ice, of sand, etc.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

        Drifts of rising dust involve the sky.

      • (Can we date this quote?) [{w|Kane}}

        We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift [of ice].

   6. The distance through which a current flows in a given time.
   7. A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Fuller

        cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drift doing much damage to the high ways)

   8. 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 retreat of continental glaciers, such as that which buries former river valleys and creates young river valleys.
      • 1867, E. Andrews, "Observations on the Glacial Drift beneath the bed of Lake Michigan," American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. 43, nos. 127-129, page 75:

        It is there seen that at a distance from the valleys of streams, the old glacial drift usually comes to the surface, and often rises into considerable eminences.

   9. Driftwood included in flotsam washed up onto the beach.
2. The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Robert South

     A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose.

3. A place (a ford) along a river where the water is shallow enough to permit crossing to the opposite side.
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.
   • 1977, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Penguin Classics, p. 316:

     'Besides, you lack the brains to catch my drift. / If I explained you wouldn't understand.'

   • (Can we date this quote?) Joseph Addison

     He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott

     Now thou knowest my drift.

5. (architecture) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

6. (handiwork) A tool.
   1. 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.
   2. A tool used to pack down the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.
   3. A tool used to insert or extract a removable pin made of metal or hardwood, for the purpose of aligning and/or securing two pieces of material together.
7. A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to oblong projectiles.
8. (mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel.
9. (nautical) Movement.
   1. The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.
   2. The distance a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes.
   3. 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.
   4. The distance between the two blocks of a tackle.
   5. 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.
10. (cricket) A sideways movement of the ball through the air, when bowled by a spin bowler.
11. Slow, cumulative change.

    genetic drift

drift (third-person singular simple present drifts, present participle drifting, simple past and past participle drifted)

1. (intransitive) 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.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 11, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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. (intransitive) To move haphazardly without any destination.

   He drifted from town to town, never settling down.

3. (intransitive) To deviate gently from the intended direction of travel.

   This car tends to drift left at high speeds.

   • 2011 January 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 4-3 Wolves”, in BBC:

     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. (transitive) To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of J. H. Newman to this entry?)

5. (transitive) To drive into heaps.

   A current of wind drifts snow or sand

6. (intransitive) To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps.

   Snow or sand drifts.

7. (mining, US) 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.
8. (transitive, engineering) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
9. To oversteer a vehicle, causing loss of traction, while maintaining control from entry to exit of a corner. See Drifting (motorsport).

From Middle Dutch drift, also dricht, from Old Dutch *drift, from Proto-Germanic *driftiz.

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• Rhymes: -ɪft

drift f (plural driften)

1. passion
2. strong and sudden upwelling of anger: a fit
3. violent tendency
4. flock (of sheep or oxen)
5. deviation of direction caused by wind: drift
6. path along which cattle are driven

• driftig
• geestdriftig
• aandrift
• geestdrift
• sneeuwdrift
• driftbui
• driftkikker
• driftsneeuw

• IPA^(key): /trɪft/

drift f (genitive singular driftar, nominative plural driftir)

1. snowdrift

• drífa

From Old Norse drift

drift f or m (definite singular drifta or driften, indefinite plural drifter, definite plural driftene)

1. operation (av / of)

• “drift” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse drift

• IPA^(key): /drɪft/

drift f (definite singular drifta, indefinite plural drifter, definite plural driftene)

1. operation (av / of)
2. drift (being carred by currents)
3. drive (motivation)

• driftskostnad
• driftsmessig
• firehjulsdrift
• gruvedrift

• “drift” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Old Norse dript, from Proto-Germanic *driftiz.

drift c

1. urge, instinct
2. operation, management (singular only)