From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Drift \Drift\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Drifted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Drifting}.]
1. 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. -- Coleridge.
2. To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts.
3. (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.]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another; "a drifting double-dealer"; "the floating population"; "vagrant hippies of the sixties" [syn: {aimless}, {floating}, {vagabond}, {vagrant}]
2: afloat on the surface of a body of water; "after the storm the boats were adrift" [syn: {adrift(p)}, {drifting(a)}]
noun
1: aimless wandering from place to place
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
67 Moby Thesaurus words for "drifting": ascending, axial, back, back-flowing, backward, circumforaneous, descending, discursive, divagatory, down-trending, downward, errant, flitting, floating, flowing, fluent, flying, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, fugitive, gadding, going, gypsy-like, gypsyish, gyrational, gyratory, landloping, meandering, migrational, migratory, mounting, nomad, nomadic, passing, plunging, progressive, rambling, ranging, reflowing, refluent, regressive, retrogressive, rising, roaming, rotary, rotational, rotatory, roving, running, rushing, shifting, sideward, sinking, soaring, straggling, straying, streaming, strolling, traipsing, transient, transitory, transmigratory, up-trending, upward, vagabond, vagrant, wandering
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