drift
/dɹɪft/ verb C2- To move slowly, especially pushed by currents of water, air, etc. · The boat drifted away from the shore.· The balloon was drifting in the breeze.
- To move haphazardly without any destination. · He drifted from town to town, never settling down.
- To deviate gently from the intended direction of travel. · This car tends to drift left at high speeds.
- To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.
- To drive into heaps. · A current of wind drifts snow or sand
- To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps. · Snow or sand drifts.
- 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.
- To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
He/she/it drifts · Past drifted · Past participle drifted · -ing form drifting
Verb forms
- Base form
- drift
- He/she/it
- drifts
- Past
- drifted
- Past participle
- drifted
- -ing form
- drifting
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
Every minute that white woolly plain which covered one-half of the moor was drifting closer and closer to the house.
Rain squalls drifted across their russet face, and the heavy, slate-coloured clouds hung low over the landscape, trailing in grey wreaths down the sides of the fantastic hills.
It was drifting slowly in our direction and banked itself up like a wall on that side of us, low but thick and well defined.
Holmes’s face was turned towards it, and he muttered impatiently as he watched its sluggish drift.
Other matches
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