adv. & a. [ Pref. a- (for on) + drift. ] Floating at random; in a drifting condition; at the mercy of wind and waves. Also fig. [ 1913 Webster ]

So on the sea shall be set adrift. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Were from their daily labor turned adrift. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

. the movements of continents relative to each other across the Earth's surface; see plate tectonics. [ PJC ]

n. [ From drive; akin to LG. & D. drift a driving, Icel. drift snowdrift, Dan. drift, impulse, drove, herd, pasture, common, G. trift pasturage, drove. See Drive. ] 1. A driving; a violent movement. [ 1913 Webster ]

The dragon drew him [ self ] away with drift of his wings. King Alisaunder (1332). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse. [ 1913 Webster ]

A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting. “Our drift was south.” Hakluyt. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now thou knowest my drift. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. That which is driven, forced, or urged along; as: (a) Anything driven at random. “Some log . . . a useless drift.” Dryden. (b) A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, etc., esp. by wind or water; as, a drift of snow, of ice, of sand, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

Drifts of rising dust involve the sky. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

(c) A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drift doing much damage to the high ways). Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Arch.) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments. [ R. ] Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Geol.) 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 agency of ice. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. In South Africa, a ford in a river. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. (Mech.) 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. (Mil.) (a) A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework. (b) A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to oblong projectiles. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. (Mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. (Naut.) (a) The distance through which a current flows in a given time. (b) The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting. (c) The distance to which a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes. (d) 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. (e) The distance between the two blocks of a tackle. [ 1913 Webster ]

13. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

14. (Phys. Geog.) One of the slower movements of oceanic circulation; a general tendency of the water, subject to occasional or frequent diversion or reversal by the wind; as, the easterly drift of the North Pacific. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

15. (Aëronautics) The horizontal component of the pressure of the air on the sustaining surfaces of a flying machine. The lift is the corresponding vertical component, which sustains the machine in the air. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

☞ Drift is used also either adjectively or as the first part of a compound. See Drift, a. [ 1913 Webster ]

Drift of the forest (O. Eng. Law), an examination or view of the cattle in a forest, in order to see whose they are, whether they are commonable, and to determine whether or not the forest is surcharged. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ] --
continental drift (Geology), the very slow (ca. 1-5 cm per year) movement of the continents and parts of continents relative to each other and to the points of upwelling of magma in the viscous layers beneath the continents; -- causing, for example, the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean by the movement of Africa and South America away from each other. See also plate tectonics. [ PJC ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Drifted; p. pr. & vb. n. Drifting. ] 1. To float or be driven along by, or as by, a current of water or air; as, the ship drifted astern; a raft drifted ashore; the balloon drifts slowly east. [ 1913 Webster ]

We drifted o'er the harbor bar. Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (mining) 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. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body. J. H. Newman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or sand. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mach.) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. That causes drifting or that is drifted; movable by wind or currents; as, drift currents; drift ice; drift mud. Kane. [ 1913 Webster ]

Drift anchor. See Sea anchor, and also Drag sail, under Drag, n. --
Drift epoch (Geol.), the glacial epoch. --
Drift net, a kind of fishing net. --
Drift sail. Same as Drag sail. See under Drag, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Deviation from a ship's course due to leeway. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Anything that drifts. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A bolt for driving out other bolts. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having no drift or direction; without aim; purposeless. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Shipbuilding) An upright or curved piece of timber connecting the plank sheer with the gunwale; also, a scroll terminating a rail. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Mech.) A smooth drift. See Drift, n., 9. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A common way, road, or path, for driving cattle. Cowell. Burrill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mining) Same as Drift, 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Seaweed drifted to the shore by the wind. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A driving wind; a wind that drives snow, sand, etc., into heaps. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Wood drifted or floated by water. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: Whatever is drifting or floating as on water. [ 1913 Webster ]

The current of humanity, with its heavy proportion of very useless driftwood. New Your Times. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Full of drifts; tending to form drifts, as snow, and the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A bank of drifted snow. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Spoondrift.

The ocean waves are broken up by wind, ultimately producing the storm wrack and spindrift of the tempest-tossed sea. J. E. Marr. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Spoom + drift. ] Spray blown from the tops of waves during a gale at sea; also, snow driven in the wind at sea; -- written also spindrift. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Astron.) Similar and probably related motion of the stars of an asterism, as distinguished from apparent change of place due to solar motion.-- ##?? = star streaming? -- [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]