DRIFTING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does drifting mean? 

• DRIFTING (noun)
  The noun DRIFTING has 1 sense:

1. aimless wandering from place to place

  Familiarity information: DRIFTING used as a noun is very rare.

• DRIFTING (adjective)
  The adjective DRIFTING has 1 sense:

1. continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another

  Familiarity information: DRIFTING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DRIFTING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Aimless wandering from place to place

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("drifting" is a kind of...):

roving; vagabondage; wandering (travelling about without any clear destination)

Derivation:

drift (move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment)

drift (wander from a direct course or at random)

• DRIFTING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another

Synonyms:

aimless; drifting; floating; vagabond; vagrant

Context example:

vagrant hippies of the sixties

Similar:

unsettled (not settled or established)

 Context examples 

The sea is tumbling in over the shallows and the sandy flats with a roar, muffled in the sea-mists drifting inland.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

They, too, were silent, their eyes only gleaming and their breaths drifting slowly upward.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

One of the most dangerous classes in the world, said he, is the drifting and friendless woman.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That’s allowing drifting coral larvae to settle and grow in new regions.

(Coral reefs shifting away from equatorial waters, National Science Foundation)

Wolf Larsen repeated his manœuvre, holding off and then rounding up to windward and drifting down upon it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In a breath, the river that flows through our Sunday walks is sparkling in the summer sun, is ruffled by the winter wind, or thickened with drifting heaps of ice.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There it lay, so still and gray beneath the drifting wrack—the home of things noble and of things shameful—the theatre where a new name might be made or an old one marred.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My son, through ignorance of his true position, was drifting into a course of life which accorded with his strength and spirit, but not with the traditions of his house.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We seem to be drifting very far from the object of this expedition, Lord John.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It came to her then more bitterly than ever that Beth was slowly drifting away from her, and her arms instinctively tightened their hold upon the dearest treasure she possessed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)