drift

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
drift/drɪft/

▶verb

• 1 be carried slowly by a current of air or water.

• 2 walk slowly or casually.

  ■ move aimlessly or involuntarily into a certain situation or condition: Lewis and his father drifted apart.

• 3 (chiefly of snow) be blown into heaps by the wind.

▶noun

• 1 a continuous slow movement from one place to another.

  ■ deviation from an intended course because of currents or winds.

  ■ Motor Racing a controlled skid, used in taking bends at high speeds.

  ■ Brit. historical an act of driving cattle or sheep.

• 2 the general meaning of someone's remarks: he didn't understand much Greek, but he got her drift.

• 3 a large mass of snow or other material piled up by the wind.

  ■ Geology deposits left by retreating ice sheets.

• 4 a state of inaction or indecision.

• 5 Mining a passage following a mineral vein or coal seam.

• 6 S. African a ford.

– derivatives
drifty adjective.

– origin ME: orig. from ON drift ‘snowdrift, something driven’; in later use from MDu. drift ‘course, current’, rel. to drive.