DRIFTING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Drifting

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/drˈɪftɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Drift v. t.

To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.

To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or sand.

(Mach.) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.

Drift v. i. (past & past part. drifted; pres. part. drifting)

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. "We drifted o'er the harbor bar."

To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts.

(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. (U.S.)

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Etymology of 'Drifting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Drifting" Quotes from Famous Books

... a landscape rose 470 More wild and waste and desolate than where The white bear, drifting on a field of ice, Howls to her sundered cubs with piteous rage And ...

— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... she felt so weak and broken-down that she was obliged to go to bed and remain there for several days. On January 29th the unfortunate lady had risen, and was sitting near the window which overlooked the deserted rue des Menetriers, where clouds of snow were drifting before the wind. Who can guess the sad thoughts which may have possessed her?—all around dark, cold, and silent, tending to produce painful depression and involuntary dread. To escape the gloomy ideas which besieged her, her mind went back to the smiling times of her youth and ...

— Celebrated Crimes, Complete • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... agree with the Protector. In 1657 Cromwell was given still higher powers, but in 1658 he died. His son, Richard Cromwell, was installed as Protector. The republican government had, however, been gradually drifting back toward the old royal form and spirit, so when the new Lord Protector proved to be unequal to the position, when the army became rebellious again, and the country threatened to fall into anarchy, Monk, an influential general, brought about the reassembling of the Long Parliament, ...

— An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England • Edward Potts Cheyney

... just what it was that aroused him; perhaps it was a premonition of danger, perhaps the rocking of the boat. At any rate he was suddenly broad awake to find himself drifting out into the middle of the stream. In some way the boat must have become unfastened and the rising breeze carried it away from shore. Not that it mattered very much now. The thing that was of consequence was that he was helplessly drifting ...

— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett

... great chamber, keeping just a sufficiency of presence of mind to join a knot of idlers who were drifting leisurely towards the corridors. He followed in their wake and soon found himself in the long Galerie des Prisonniers, along the flagstones of which two days ago de Batz had followed his guide ...

— El Dorado • Baroness Orczy

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