Definition: 1. A force that moves something along. 2. The gradual departure from an intended course due to external influences (as a ship or plane). 3. A process of linguistic change over a period of time. 4. Be in motion due to some air or water current. 5. Wander from a direct course or at random.
Use 'drift' in a sentence:
1. Plant daffodils in informal drifts.
2. Along the east coast of the United States, the southernmost advance of this ice is recorded by the enormous sand and drift deposits of the terminal moraines that form Long Island and Cape Cod.
3. We need to offer young people drifting into crime an alternative set of values.
4. As children we were very close, but as we grew up we just drifted apart.
5. Too late he divined her "drift".
6. Over the years, Rosie and I had drifted apart.
7. As rural factories lay off workers, people drift toward the cities.
8. The injured man tried to speak but soon drifted into unconsciousness.
9. It was apparent that the glaciation occurred in the relatively recent past because the drift was soft, like freshly deposited sediment.
10. The answer might involve their offspring, which in their larval form drift in the currents to colonize new vents.
11. Guided by science, we do not drift off course anymore but further pursue other sophisticated technologies with purpose.
12. Do you catch my drift?
13. The boat slipped its moorings and drifted out to sea.
14. My German isn't very good, but I got the drift of what she said.
15. I didn't intend to be a teacher ─ I just drifted into it.
16. Once detached from the ice shelf, these bergs drift in the currents and wind systems surrounding Antarctica and can be found scattered among Antarctica's less colorful icebergs.
17. This drift has been studied extensively in many animals and in biological activities ranging from the hatching of fruit fly eggs to wheel running by squirrels.
18. Your eyes drift separately and slowly, and you're hard to wake up.
19. Here and there a drift across the road was wet and slushy.
20. There was a drift of smoke above the trees.
21. In 1912, Alfred Wegener proposed, in a widely debated theory that came to be called continental drift, that Earth's continents were mobile.
22. A nine-year-old boy was trapped in a snow drift.
23. He hasn't decided what to do yet ─ he's just drifting.
24. He drifted aimlessly from one job to another.
25. Sun clocks worked, of course, only on clear days; water clocks misbehaved when the temperature fell toward freezing, to say nothing of long-run drift as the result of sedimentation and clogging.
26. Earth's internal heat, fueled by radioactivity, provides the energy for plate tectonics and continental drift, mountain building, and earthquakes.
27. We now know the age of the glaciation accurately from radiometric dating of the carbon-14 in logs buried in the drift.
28. The storm's violent waves would have caused separate pieces floating even briefly on the surface to drift apart.
29. There is a general sense that the country and economy alike are drifting.
30. The drift of the icebergs in the sea endangers the ships.
31. I must have drifted off, because when I woke we were nearly home.
32. Other members of the committee drifted in for a quick one before closing time.
33. My sister and I reclined and let our little rowboat drift out onto the lake.
34. They lose interest and start drifting away in ones and twos.
35. As rural factories shed labour, people drift towards the cities.
36. Tom presently began to drift insensibly back into the concerns of this life again.
37. Stephen Jay Gould, for example, argues that continental drift theory was rejected because it did not explain how continents could move through an apparently solid oceanic floor.
38. The boat was not fastened, and the motion which she occasioned, made it drift from the shore.
39. We proceeded to drift on up the river.
40. Why don't you let the nest drift as usual?
41. The conversation drifted onto politics.
42. To quote one medical opinion, "Thousands of people drift through life suffering from the effects of too little sleep; the reason is not that they can't sleep."
43. Do you catch my drift ?
44. The crowd drifted away from the scene of the accident.
45. The road was blocked by deep drifts of snow.
46. He knew the hidden drifts in that part of the river.
47. Clouds drifted across the sky.
48. Finally she drifted into sleep.
49. You've been drifting from job to job without any real commitment.
50. He had just drifted off to sleep when the phone rang.
51. Some roads are closed because of drifting.
52. The empty boat drifted out to sea.
53. Amy thought she caught the faintest drift of Isabel's flowery perfume.
54. Anybody who's listening will get the drift of what he was saying.
55. As geologists mapped glacial deposits in the late nineteenth century, they became aware that there were several layers of drift, the lower ones corresponding to earlier ice ages.
56. Grace was beginning to get his drift.
57. Offshore platforms may also lose oil, creating oil slicks that drift ashore and foul the beaches, harming the environment.
58. If the ash cloud were to drift in another direction, flights could be sent around or above it.
