drift
IPA: drˈɪft
noun
- (physical) Movement; that which moves or is moved.
- Anything driven at random.
- 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.
- The distance through which a current flows in a given time.
- A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds.
- 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.
- Driftwood included in flotsam washed up onto the beach.
- (obsolete) A driving; a violent movement.
- Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting.
- That which is driven, forced, or urged along.
- The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
- A place (a ford) along a river where the water is shallow enough to permit crossing to the opposite side.
- 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.
- (architecture) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments.
- (handiwork) A tool.
- 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.
- A tool used to pack down the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.
- 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.
- A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to obloid projectiles.
- (uncountable) Minor deviation of audio or video playback from its correct speed.
- (uncountable, film) The situation where a performer gradually and unintentionally moves from their proper location within the scene.
- (mining)
- (mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery.
- (mining) An adit or tunnel driven forward for purposes of exploration or exploitation; generally eventually to a dead end.
- (mining) A sloping winze or road to the surface, for purposes of haulage.
- (mining) In a coal mine, a heading driven for exploration or ventilation.
- (mining) Of a boring or a driven tunnel: deviation from the intended course.
- (mining) A heading driven through a seam of coal.
- (nautical) Movement.
- The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.
- The distance a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes.
- 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.
- The distance between the two blocks of a tackle.
- 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.
- (cricket) A sideways movement of the ball through the air, when bowled by a spin bowler.
- Slow, cumulative change.
- In New Forest National Park, UK, the bi-annual round-up of wild ponies in order to be sold.
verb
- (intransitive) To move slowly, especially pushed by currents of water, air, etc.
- (intransitive) To move haphazardly without any destination.
- (intransitive) To deviate gently from the intended direction of travel.
- (transitive) To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.
- (transitive) To drive into heaps.
- (intransitive) To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps.
- (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.
- (transitive, engineering) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
- (automotive) To oversteer a vehicle, causing loss of traction, while maintaining control from entry to exit of a corner. See Drifting (motorsport).
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Examples of "drift" in Sentences
- A breeze drifts.
- The scent drifts.
- The attention drifts.
- The conversation drifts.
- Earth's crust wanders, drifts and shifts.
- The fog prevented knowledge of the drift.
- It is the role of genetic drift in speciation.
- As the continent drifted to the west, the hotspot gradually moved offshore.
- Drift migration is the phenomenon in which migrating birds are blown off course by winds.
- The crowd drifted away from the scene of the accident and began to move back to the sidewalk.
- “Our drift is to the south-east, or south-south-east, at the rate of at least two miles an hour.”
- They profess to see the approaching extinction of the American democracy in what they call the drift towards centralization.
- (Scoresby’s use of the term drift – ice for pieces of ice intermediate in size between floes and brash has, however, quite died out).
- How he happened to drift from the western cattle-ranges to New York he did not explain, any more than did he explain how he came to ship on the
- I have dived myself there in the Netherland Antilles, and we did what you call drift diving, where it carries you along, the water does, because there ` s a very heavy current.
- As those of us who have shot some at long range know, (lack of) wind drift is much more important than an inch or two of flatter trajectory ... not that trajectory is an issue at 3000+ fps.
- The old and discredited neo-conservatives like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton and Jeb Bush sought to link domestic controversies surrounding the Clinton administration to what they described as a drift in American foreign and defense policy.
- A big part of the policy story is what we call "drift" - the deliberate failure to update policies to reflect changing economic realities despite viable and popular alternatives due to the pressure of those benefiting from such calculated inaction.
- We're happy to say when we did that we showed through what they call drift ftr very sophisticated ftr analysis and quantitative X-ray diffraction that we truly had hit the home run because all of the activating chemicals down to parts per trillion.