drift

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To be carried slowly along by water, air, or a current.

   The empty boat drifted slowly down the river.

2. 2
   verb

   To move slowly or aimlessly from place to place or activity to activity.

   My son drifted around for years before going to law school.

3. 3
   verb

   To be blown into heaps or banks by the wind.

   Overnight the snow drifted several feet high against the door.

4. 4
   noun

   The general meaning or main point of what someone says.

   I didn't catch every word, but I got the drift of the conversation.

From Middle English drift, dryft (“act of driving, drove, shower of rain or snow, impulse”), from Old English *drift (“drift”), from Proto-Germanic *driftiz (“drift”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Equivalent to drive + -t; cognate with North Frisian drift (“drift”), Saterland Frisian Drift (“current, flow, stream, drift”), Dutch drift (“drift, passion, urge”), German Drift (“drift”) and Trift (“drove, pasture”), Danish drift (“impulse, instinct”), Swedish drift (“impulse, instinct”), Icelandic drift (“drift, snow-drift”).

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