drift

How to use drift in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for drift.

Home Featured words Jump to examples

Editorial note

You drift apart one minute at a time.

Examples12

Definitions17

Parts of speech2

Quick take

a force that moves something along

Meaning at a glance

The clearest senses and uses of drift gathered in one view.

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

Definitions

Core meanings and parts of speech for drift.

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

noun

a large mass of material that is heaped up by the wind or by water currents

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

the pervading meaning or tenor; "caught the general drift of the conversation"

noun

a horizontal (or nearly horizontal) passageway in a mine; "they dug a drift parallel with the vein"

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

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

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"; "They rolled from town to town"

verb

vary or move from a fixed point or course; "stock prices are drifting higher"

verb

live unhurriedly, irresponsibly, or freely; "My son drifted around for years in California before going to law school"

verb

move in an unhurried fashion; "The unknown young man drifted among the invited guests"

verb

cause to be carried by a current; "drift the boats downstream"

verb

drive slowly and far afield for grazing; "drift the cattle herds westwards"

verb

be subject to fluctuation; "The stock market drifted upward"

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"

Example sentences

You drift apart one minute at a time.

Your brain can only focus for so long, it's normal that it needs a break, so naturally you drift over to the web.

Easy to spot in the work place, remotely not so much...Dale has a quite common tendency for diurnal drift - a 25 hour cycle.

As we add a huge more content in Q4, we expect Starz content to naturally drift down to 5-6% of domestic viewing in Q1.

With sufficient isolation, there will be cultural and genetic drift.

Finally!The only consequence would be a very, very slow drift between the "wall clock" time and the time of sunrise/midday/sunset.

Everyone worked very closely with their adviser, and didn't have the "drift" I read about a lot, where students seem to feel alone.

You could detect such wind shear when climbing or descending through it, either with GPS or by watching the ground and seeing how much you drift in relation to it.

I can only image the frustration of someone lost at sea watching one of these slowly drift right passed them and no way to get on board and no crew to signal for help.

Using the radar data we re-calibrated and cross-checked the GPS positioning to make sure there was no drift, error, or distortion.

People drift away from him wherever he goes, sometimes stranding some poor soul talking to him, but generally trying as best as possible to continue the party as normal and hoping he doesn't disrupt it further.

On a real-life analog synth of that generation, the oscillators would drift out of tune and need to be calibrated periodically; also, the tuning would change as the machine warmed up over the first half-hour or so of operation, so early electronic keyboard players often had difficulty staying in tune with the band.