Drift

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  adit \ad"it\ ([a^]d"[i^]t), n. [L. aditus, fr. adire, aditum, to
     go to; ad + ire to go.]
     1. An entrance or passage. Specifically: The nearly
        horizontal opening by which a mine is entered, or by which
        water and ores are carried away; -- called also {drift}
        and {tunnel}.


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     2. Admission; approach; access. [R.]
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              Yourself and yours shall have
              Free adit.                            --Tennyson.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Drift \Drift\, n. [From {drive}; akin to LG. & D. drift a
     driving, Icel. drift snowdrift, Dan. drift, impulse, drove,
     herd, pasture, common, G. trift pasturage, drove. See
     {Drive}.]
     1. A driving; a violent movement.
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              The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his
              wings.                                --King
                                                    Alisaunder
                                                    (1332).
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     2. The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or
        drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
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              A bad man, being under the drift of any passion,
              will follow the impulse of it till something
              interpose.                            --South.
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     3. Course or direction along which anything is driven;
        setting. "Our drift was south." --Hakluyt.
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     4. The tendency of an act, argument, course of conduct, or
        the like; object aimed at or intended; intention; hence,
        also, import or meaning of a sentence or discourse; aim.
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              He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment
              on his country in general.            -- Addison.
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              Now thou knowest my drift.            --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
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     5. That which is driven, forced, or urged along; as:
        (a) Anything driven at random. "Some log . . . a useless
            drift." --Dryden.
        (b) A mass of matter which has been driven or forced
            onward together in a body, or thrown together in a
            heap, etc., esp. by wind or water; as, a drift of
            snow, of ice, of sand, and the like.
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                  Drifts of rising dust involve the sky. -- Pope.
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                  We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift
                  [of ice].                         --Kane.
        (c) A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds. [Obs.]
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                  Cattle coming over the bridge (with their great
                  drift doing much damage to the high ways). --
                                                    Fuller.
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     6. (Arch.) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or
        vault upon the abutments. [R.] --Knight.
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     7. (Geol.) A collection of loose earth and rocks, or
        boulders, which have been distributed over large portions
        of the earth's surface, especially in latitudes north of
        forty degrees, by the agency of ice.
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     8. In South Africa, a ford in a river.
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     9. (Mech.) A slightly tapered tool of steel for enlarging or
        shaping a hole in metal, by being forced or driven into or
        through it; a broach.
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     10. (Mil.)
         (a) A tool used in driving down compactly the composition
             contained in a rocket, or like firework.
         (b) A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to oblong
             projectiles.
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     11. (Mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft;
         a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or
         tunnel.
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     12. (Naut.)
         (a) The distance through which a current flows in a given
             time.
         (b) The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes
             with the meridian, in drifting.
         (c) The distance to which a vessel is carried off from
             her desired course by the wind, currents, or other
             causes.
         (d) The place in a deep-waisted vessel where the sheer is
             raised and the rail is cut off, and usually
             terminated with a scroll, or driftpiece.
         (e) The distance between the two blocks of a tackle.
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     13. The difference between the size of a bolt and the hole
         into which it is driven, or between the circumference of
         a hoop and that of the mast on which it is to be driven.
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     14. (Phys. Geog.) One of the slower movements of oceanic
         circulation; a general tendency of the water, subject to
         occasional or frequent diversion or reversal by the wind;
         as, the easterly drift of the North Pacific.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     15. (A["e]ronautics) The horizontal component of the pressure
         of the air on the sustaining surfaces of a flying
         machine. The lift is the corresponding vertical
         component, which sustains the machine in the air.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     Note: Drift is used also either adjectively or as the first
           part of a compound. See {Drift}, a.
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     {Drift of the forest} (O. Eng. Law), an examination or view
        of the cattle in a forest, in order to see whose they are,
        whether they are commonable, and to determine whether or
        not the forest is surcharged. --Burrill. [1913 Webster]
  
     {continental drift} (Geology), the very slow (ca. 1-5 cm per
        year) movement of the continents and parts of continents
        relative to each other and to the points of upwelling of
        magma in the viscous layers beneath the continents; --
        causing, for example, the opening of the South Atlantic
        Ocean by the movement of Africa and South America away
        from each other. See also {plate tectonics}.
        [PJC]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Drift \Drift\, v. i. [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.
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              We drifted o'er the harbor bar.       -- Coleridge.
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     2. To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven
        into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts.
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     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.]
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Drift \Drift\, v. t.
     1. To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body. --J. H.
        Newman.
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     2. To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or
        sand.
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     3. (Mach.) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Drift \Drift\, a.
     That causes drifting or that is drifted; movable by wind or
     currents; as, drift currents; drift ice; drift mud. --Kane.
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     {Drift anchor}. See {Sea anchor}, and also {Drag sail}, under
        {Drag}, n.
  
     {Drift epoch} (Geol.), the glacial epoch.
  
     {Drift net}, a kind of fishing net.
  
     {Drift sail}. Same as {Drag sail}. See under {Drag}, n.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  drift
       n 1: a force that moves something along [syn: {impetus}, {impulsion}]
       2: the gradual departure from an intended course due to
          external influences (as a ship or plane)
       3: a process of linguistic change over a period of time
       4: something that is heaped up by the wind or by water currents
       5: a general tendency to change (as of opinion); "not openly
          liberal but that is the trend of the book"; "a broad
          movement of the electorate to the right" [syn: {trend}, {movement}]
       6: general meaning or tenor; "caught the drift of the
          conversation" [syn: {purport}]
       7: a horizontal (or nearly horizontal) passageway in a mine;
          "they dug a drift parallel with the vein" [syn: {heading},
           {gallery}]
       v 1: be in motion due to some air or water current; "The leaves
            were blowing in the wind"; "the boat drifted on the
            lake"; "The sailboat was adrift on the open sea"; "the
            shipwrecked boat drifted away from the shore" [syn: {float},
             {be adrift}, {blow}]
       2: wander from a direct course or at random; "The child strayed
          from the path and her parents lost sight of her"; "don't
          drift from the set course" [syn: {stray}, {err}]
       3: move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in
          search of food or employment; "The gypsies roamed the
          woods"; "roving vagabonds"; "the wandering Jew"; "The
          cattle roam across the prairie"; "the laborers drift from
          one town to the next"; "They rolled from town to town"
          [syn: {roll}, {wander}, {swan}, {stray}, {tramp}, {roam},
          {cast}, {ramble}, {rove}, {range}, {vagabond}]
       4: vary or move from a fixed point or course; "stock prices are
          drifting higher"
       5: live unhurriedly, irresponsibly, or freely; "My son drifted
          around for years in California before going to law school"
          [syn: {freewheel}]
       6: move in an unhurried fashion; "The unknown young man drifted
          among the invited guests"
       7: cause to be carried by a current; "drift the boats
          downstream"
       8: drive slowly and far afield for grazing; "drift the cattle
          herds westwards"
       9: be subject to fluctuation; "The stock market drifted upward"
       10: be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of wind or a
           current; "snow drifting several feet high"; "sand
           drifting like snow"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  430 Moby Thesaurus words for "drift":
     Brownian movement, Zeitgeist, aberrancy, aberration, accumulation,
     advance, aeroplane, affective meaning, affluence, afflux,
     affluxion, aim, airlift, airplane, alluvion, alluvium, amble,
     angular motion, anthill, army, array, ascending, ascent,
     atmospherics, axial motion, azimuth, backflowing, backing,
     backward motion, balloon, bank, bank up, bat, bat around, batch,
     be a sideliner, be airborne, be still, bear off, bearing, bend,
     bent, bias, blaring, blasting, blind spot, branching off, bum,
     bunch, bundle, career, circuitousness, climbing, clump, cluster,
     clutch, coast, cock, colony, color, coloring, concourse,
     confluence, conflux, connotation, consequence, corner, count ties,
     course, crawling, creeping, crook, crosscurrent, cruise, current,
     curve, dance, dart, debris, declination, defluxion, delay,
     denotation, departure, deposit, descending, descent, detour,
     detritus, deviance, deviancy, deviation, deviousness, digression,
     diluvium, direction, direction line, discursion, disposition,
     divagate, divagation, divarication, divergence, diversion,
     do nothing, dogleg, double, downflow, downpour, downward motion,
     drift off course, driftage, drifting, drive, drove, dune, ebbing,
     effect, embankment, err, errantry, essence, excurse, excursion,
     excursus, exorbitation, extension, fade-out, fading, fall down,
     ferry, fetch away, flicker, flight, flit, flitter, float, flock,
     flood, flow, flowing, fluency, flutter, flux, fly, foot, force,
     forward motion, gad, gad about, gallivant, gam, gang, ghost, gist,
     glacial movement, glide, go about, go astray, go the rounds,
     grammatical meaning, group, gush, hairpin, hang fire, haycock,
     haymow, hayrick, haystack, heading, heap, heap up, helmsmanship,
     herd, hibernate, hill, hit the road, hit the trail, hobo, hop,
     host, hover, hydroplane, idea, idle, impact, implication, import,
     inclination, inclining, indirection, inflow, intension, intent,
     intention, interference, jaunt, jet, kennel, knock about,
     knock around, lay, leeway, lexical meaning, lie, lie dormant, line,
     line of direction, line of march, linger, literal meaning, litter,
     loess, lot, main current, mainstream, make leeway, mass, maunder,
     meander, meaning, mill run, millrace, molehill, mooch, mope,
     moraine, mosey, motion, mound, mountain, mounting, movement, mow,
     muck, navigate, navigation, noise, nomadize, not budge, not stir,
     object, oblique motion, obliquity, ongoing, onrush, onward course,
     orientation, outflow, overtone, pack, parcel, partiality, passage,
     pay off, penchant, peregrinate, pererrate, pererration, pertinence,
     pile, pile up, piloting, pith, plow the deep, plunging, pod, point,
     practical consequence, predilection, pride, progress, progression,
     propensity, prowl, purport, purpose, pyramid, quarter, race,
     radial motion, ramble, rambling, random motion, range,
     range of meaning, real meaning, reception, reference, referent,
     reflowing, refluence, reflux, regression, relation, relevance,
     rest, retrogression, rick, ride, ride the sea, rising, roam, rove,
     run, run about, rush, sag, sail, sailplane, saunter, school, scope,
     scree, scud, seaplane, sediment, semantic cluster, semantic field,
     sense, set, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path,
     shoal, shock, shoot, sideward motion, significance, signification,
     significatum, signifie, silt, sinking, sinter, sit back,
     sit it out, skew, skim, skulk, slant, slip, sloth, snake,
     snowdrift, soar, soaring, span of meaning, spate, spirit, stack,
     stack up, stagnate, static, steerage, steering, sternway, straggle,
     stray, straying, stream, stroll, structural meaning, subsiding,
     substance, sum, sum and substance, surge, sweep, swerve, swerving,
     swing, swinging, symbolic meaning, tack, take it easy,
     take the air, take wing, tendency, tenor, the general tendency,
     the main course, tide, time spirit, tone, totality of associations,
     track, traipse, traject, trajet, tramp, transferred meaning, trend,
     trip, troop, turn, turning, twist, twist and turn,
     unadorned meaning, undercurrent, undertone, undertow,
     upward motion, vagabond, vagabondize, value, variation, veer,
     vegetate, volplane, waft, wait and see, walk the tracks,
     walk the waters, wander, wandering, warp, wash, watch and wait,
     water flow, way, wayfare, wind, wing, yaw, yaw off, zigzag