Drift
Definition of Drift
| n. | 1. | A driving; a violent movement. | | 2. | The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse. | | 3. | Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting. | | 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. | | 5. | That which is driven, forced, or urged along | | 6. | A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds. | | 6. | (Arch.) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments. | | 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. | | 8. | In South Africa, a ford in a river. | | 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. | | 10. | (Mil.) A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework. | | 11. | (Mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel. | | 12. | (Naut.) The distance through which a current flows in a given time. | | 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. | | 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. | | 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. | | v. i. | 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. | | 2. | To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts. | | 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. | | v. t. | 1. | To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body. | | 2. | To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or sand. | | 3. | (Mach.) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift. | | a. | 1. | That causes drifting or that is drifted; movable by wind or currents; as, drift currents; drift ice; drift mud. |
Related Words
Brownian movement, Zeitgeist, aberrancy, aberration, accumulation, advance, aeroplane, affective meaning, affluence, afflux, affluxion, aim, airlift, airplane, alluvion, alluvium, amble, angular motion, anthill, army, array, ascending, ascent, atmospherics, axial motion, azimuth, backflowing, backing, backward motion, balloon, bank, bank up, bat, bat around, batch, be a sideliner, be airborne, be still, bear off, bearing, bend, bent, bias, blaring, blasting, blind spot, branching off, bum, bunch, bundle, career, circuitousness, climbing, clump, cluster, clutch, coast, cock, colony, color, coloring, concourse, confluence, conflux, connotation, consequence, corner, count ties, course, crawling, creeping, crook, crosscurrent, cruise, current, curve, dance, dart, debris, declination, defluxion, delay, denotation, departure, deposit, descending, descent, detour, detritus, deviance, deviancy, deviation, deviousness, digression, diluvium, direction line, discursion, disposition, divagate, divagation, divarication, divergence, diversion, do nothing, dogleg, double, downflow, downpour, downward motion, drift off course, driftage, drifting, drive, drove, dune, ebbing, effect, embankment, err, errantry, essence, excurse, excursion, excursus, exorbitation, extension, fade-out, fading, fall down, ferry, fetch away, flicker, flight, flit, flitter, flock, flood, flow, flowing, fluency, flutter, flux, fly, foot, force, forward motion, gad, gad about, gallivant, gam, gang, ghost, gist, glacial movement, glide, go about, go astray, go the rounds, grammatical meaning, group, gush, hairpin, hang fire, haycock, haymow, hayrick, haystack, heading, heap, heap up, helmsmanship, herd, hibernate, hill, hit the road, hit the trail, hobo, hop, host, hover, hydroplane, idea, idle, impact, implication, import, inclination, inclining, indirection, inflow, intension, intent, interference, jaunt, jet, kennel, knock about, knock around, lay, leeway, lexical meaning, lie, lie dormant, line, line of direction, line of march, linger, literal meaning, litter, loess, lot, main current, mainstream, make leeway, mass, maunder, meaning, mill run, millrace, molehill, mooch, mope, moraine, mosey, motion, mound, mountain, mounting, movement, mow, muck, navigate, navigation, noise, nomadize, not budge, not stir, object, oblique motion, obliquity, ongoing, onrush, onward course, orientation, outflow, overtone, pack, parcel, partiality, passage, pay off, penchant, peregrinate, pererrate, pererration, pertinence, pile, pile up, piloting, pith, plow the deep, plunging, pod, point, practical consequence, predilection, pride, progress, progression, propensity, prowl, purport, purpose, pyramid, quarter, race, radial motion, ramble, rambling, random motion, range, range of meaning, real meaning, reception, reference, referent, reflowing, refluence, reflux, regression, relation, relevance, rest, retrogression, rick, ride, ride the sea, rising, rove, run, run about, rush, sag, sailplane, saunter, school, scope, scree, scud, seaplane, sediment, semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, set, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path, shoal, shock, shoot, sideward motion, significance, signification, significatum, signifie, silt, sinking, sinter, sit back, sit it out, skew, skim, skulk, slant, slip, sloth, snake, snowdrift, soar, soaring, span of meaning, spate, spirit, stack, stack up, stagnate, static, steerage, steering, sternway, straggle, stray, straying, stream, stroll, structural meaning, subsiding, substance, sum, sum and substance, surge, sweep, swerve, swerving, swing, swinging, symbolic meaning, tack, take it easy, take the air, take wing, tenor, the general tendency, the main course, tide, time spirit, tone, totality of associations, track, traipse, traject, trajet, tramp, transferred meaning, trend, trip, troop, turn, turning, twist, twist and turn, unadorned meaning, undercurrent, undertone, undertow, upward motion, vagabond, vagabondize, value, variation, veer, vegetate, volplane, waft, wait and see, walk the tracks, walk the waters, wander, wandering, warp, wash, watch and wait, water flow, way, wayfare, wind, wing, yaw, yaw off, zigzag
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Dressmaking
Dressy
Drest
Dretch
Dreul
Drevil
Drew
Drey
Dreye
Dreynte
Drib
Dribber
Dribble
Dribbler
Dribblet
Drie
Dried
dried-out
dried-up
Drier
-Drift-
Drift anchor
Drift epoch
Drift net
Drift of the forest
Drift sail
Driftage
Driftbolt
Driftless
Driftpiece
Driftpin
Driftway
Driftweed
Driftwind
Driftwood
Drifty
Drill
Drill barrow
Drill bow
Drill harrow
Drill jig
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