Drift
English Meaning
A driving; a violent movement.
- To be carried along by currents of air or water: a balloon drifting eastward; as the wreckage drifted toward shore.
- To proceed or move unhurriedly and smoothly: drifting among the party guests.
- To move leisurely or sporadically from place to place, especially without purpose or regular employment: a day laborer, drifting from town to town.
- To wander from a set course or point of attention; stray.
- To vary from or oscillate randomly about a fixed setting, position, or mode of operation.
- To be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of a current: snow drifting to five feet.
- To cause to be carried in a current: drifting the logs downstream.
- To pile up in banks or heaps: Wind drifted the loose straw against the barn.
- Western U.S. To drive (livestock) slowly or far afield, especially for grazing.
- The act or condition of drifting.
- Something moving along in a current of air or water.
- A bank or pile, as of sand or snow, heaped up by currents of air or water.
- Geology Rock debris transported and deposited by or from ice, especially by or from a glacier.
- A general trend or tendency, as of opinion. See Synonyms at tendency.
- General meaning or purport; tenor: caught the drift of the conversation.
- A gradual change in position.
- A gradual deviation from an original course, model, method, or intention.
- Variation or random oscillation about a fixed setting, position, or mode of behavior.
- A gradual change in the output of a circuit or amplifier.
- The rate of flow of a water current.
- A tool for ramming or driving something down.
- A tapered steel pin for enlarging and aligning holes.
- A horizontal or nearly horizontal passageway in a mine running through or parallel to a vein.
- A secondary mine passageway between two main shafts or tunnels.
- A drove or herd, especially of swine. See Synonyms at flock1.