| drift (drɪft) |
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| —vb |
| 1. | (also tr) to be carried along by or as if by currents of air or water or (of a current) to carry (a vessel, etc) along |
| 2. | to move aimlessly from place to place or from one activity to another |
| 3. | to wander or move gradually away from a fixed course or point; stray |
| 4. | (also tr) (of snow, sand, etc) to accumulate in heaps or banks or to drive (snow, sand, etc) into heaps or banks |
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| —n |
| 5. | something piled up by the wind or current, such as a snowdrift |
| 6. | tendency, trend, meaning, or purport: the drift of the argument |
| 7. | a state of indecision or inaction |
| 8. | the extent to which a vessel, aircraft, projectile, etc is driven off its course by adverse winds, tide, or current |
| 9. | a general tendency of surface ocean water to flow in the direction of the prevailing winds: North Atlantic Drift |
| 10. | a driving movement, force, or influence; impulse |
| 11. | a controlled four-wheel skid, used by racing drivers to take bends at high speed |
| 12. | a loose unstratified deposit of sand, gravel, etc, esp one transported and deposited by a glacier or ice sheet |
| 13. | a horizontal passage in a mine that follows the mineral vein |
| 14. | something, esp a group of animals, driven along by human or natural agencies: a drift of cattle |
| 15. | Also called: driftpin a tapering steel tool driven into holes to enlarge or align them before bolting or riveting |
| 16. | an uncontrolled slow change in some operating characteristic of a piece of equipment, esp an electronic circuit or component |
| 17. | linguistics gradual change in a language, esp in so far as this is influenced by the internal structure of the language rather than by contact with other languages |
| 18. | (South African) a ford |
| 19. | engineering a copper or brass bar used as a punch |
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| [C13: from Old Norse: snowdrift; related to Old High German trift pasturage] |
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| 'drifty |
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| —adj |
