Drift vs. Rift
Drift and Rift Definitions
Drift
To be carried along by currents of air or water
A balloon drifting eastward.
As the wreckage drifted toward shore.
Rift
A fissure, crack, or opening, as in rock.
Drift
To proceed or move unhurriedly or aimlessly
Drifting among the party guests.
A day laborer, drifting from town to town.
Rift
A break in friendly relations
A rift between siblings.
Drift
To live or behave without a clear purpose or goal
Drifted through his college years unable to decide on a career.
Rift
(Geology) An area where the lithosphere is thinning, typically associated with large faults and grabens.
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Drift
To have no continuing focus; stray
My attention drifted during the boring presentation.
Rift
A shallow area in a waterway.
Drift
To vary from or oscillate randomly about a fixed setting, position, or mode of operation.
Rift
The backwash of a wave that has broken upon a beach.
Drift
To be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of a current
Snow drifting to five feet.
Rift
To split open; break.
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Drift
To cause to be carried in a current
Drifting the logs downstream.
Rift
To cause to split open or break.
Drift
To pile up in banks or heaps
Wind drifted the loose straw against the barn.
Rift
A chasm or fissure.
''My marriage is in trouble: the fight created a rift between us and we can't reconnect.
The Grand Canyon is a rift in the Earth's surface, but is smaller than some of the undersea ones.
Drift
Western US To drive (livestock) slowly or far afield, especially for grazing.
Rift
A break in the clouds, fog, mist etc., which allows light through.
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Drift
Something moving along in a current of air or water
A drift of logs in the river.
Rift
A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
Drift
A bank or pile, as of sand or snow, heaped up by currents of air or water.
Rift
(intransitive) To form a rift; to split open.
Drift
(Geology) Rock debris transported and deposited by or from ice, especially by or from a glacier.
Rift
(transitive) To cleave; to rive; to split.
To rift an oak
Drift
A general trend or tendency, as of opinion.
Rift
To belch.
Drift
General meaning or purport; tenor
Caught the drift of the conversation.
Rift
An opening made by riving or splitting; a cleft; a fissure.
Drift
A gradual change in position
An iceberg's eastward drift.
Rift
A shallow place in a stream; a ford.
Drift
A gradual deviation from an original course, model, method, or intention.
Rift
To cleave; to rive; to split; as, to rift an oak or a rock; to rift the clouds.
To dwell these rifted rocks between.
Drift
Variation or random oscillation about a fixed setting, position, or mode of behavior.
Rift
To burst open; to split.
Timber . . . not apt to rif with ordnance.
Drift
A gradual change in the output of a circuit or amplifier.
Rift
To belch.
Drift
The rate of flow of a water current.
Rift
A gap between cloud masses;
The sun shone through a rift in the clouds
Drift
A tool for ramming or driving something down.
Rift
A narrow fissure in rock
Drift
A tapered steel pin for enlarging and aligning holes.
Rift
A personal or social separation (as between opposing factions);
They hoped to avoid a break in relations
Drift
A horizontal or nearly horizontal passageway in a mine running through or parallel to a vein.
Drift
A secondary mine passageway between two main shafts or tunnels.
Drift
A drove or herd, especially of swine.
Drift
(physical) Movement; that which moves or is moved.
Drift
Anything driven at random.
Drift
A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, etc., especially by wind or water.
A drift of snow, of ice, of sand, of plants, etc.
Drift
The distance through which a current flows in a given time.
Drift
A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds.
Drift
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 retreat of continental glaciers, such as that which buries former river valleys and creates young river valleys.
Drift
Driftwood included in flotsam washed up onto the beach.
Drift
(obsolete) A driving; a violent movement.
Drift
Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting.
Drift
That which is driven, forced, or urged along.
Drift
The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
Drift
A place (a ford) along a river where the water is shallow enough to permit crossing to the opposite side.
Drift
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.
Drift
(architecture) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments.
Drift
(handiwork) A tool.
Drift
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.
Drift
A tool used to pack down the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.
Drift
A tool used to insert or extract a removable pin made of metal or hardwood, for the purpose of aligning and/or securing two pieces of material together.
Drift
A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to obloid projectiles.
Drift
(uncountable) Minor deviation of audio or video playback from its correct speed.
Drift
The situation where a performer gradually and unintentionally moves from their proper location within the scene.
Drift
(mining) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel.
Drift
(nautical) Movement.
Drift
The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.
Drift
The distance a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes.
Drift
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.
Drift
The distance between the two blocks of a tackle.
Drift
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.
Drift
(cricket) A sideways movement of the ball through the air, when bowled by a spin bowler.
Drift
Slow, cumulative change.
Genetic drift
Drift
In New Forest National Park, UK, the bi-annual round-up of wild ponies in order to be sold.
Drift
(intransitive) To move slowly, especially pushed by currents of water, air, etc.
The boat drifted away from the shore.
The balloon was drifting in the breeze.
Drift
(intransitive) To move haphazardly without any destination.
He drifted from town to town, never settling down.
Drift
(intransitive) To deviate gently from the intended direction of travel.
This car tends to drift left at high speeds.
Drift
(transitive) To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.
Drift
(transitive) To drive into heaps.
A current of wind drifts snow or sand
Drift
(intransitive) To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps.
Snow or sand drifts.
Drift
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.
Drift
To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
Drift
(automotive) To oversteer a vehicle, causing loss of traction, while maintaining control from entry to exit of a corner. See Drifting (motorsport).
Drift
A driving; a violent movement.
The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings.
Drift
The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose.
Drift
Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting.
Drift
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.
He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general.
Now thou knowest my drift.
Drift
That which is driven, forced, or urged along
Drifts of rising dust involve the sky.
We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift [of ice].
Drift
A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds.
Cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drift doing much damage to the high ways).
Drift
The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments.
Drift
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.
Drift
In South Africa, a ford in a river.
Drift
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.
Drift
A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.
Drift
A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel.
Drift
The distance through which a current flows in a given time.
Drift
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.
Drift
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.
Drift
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.
Drift
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.
Drift
To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps; as, snow or sand drifts.
Drift
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.
Drift
To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.
Drift
To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or sand.
Drift
To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.
Drift
That causes drifting or that is drifted; movable by wind or currents; as, drift currents; drift ice; drift mud.
Drift
A force that moves something along
Drift
The gradual departure from an intended course due to external influences (as a ship or plane)
Drift
A process of linguistic change over a period of time
Drift
Something that is heaped up by the wind or by water currents
Drift
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
Drift
General meaning or tenor;
Caught the drift of the conversation
Drift
A horizontal (or nearly horizontal) passageway in a mine;
They dug a drift parallel with the vein
Drift
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
Drift
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
Drift
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
Drift
Vary or move from a fixed point or course;
Stock prices are drifting higher
Drift
Live unhurriedly, irresponsibly, or freely;
My son drifted around for years in California before going to law school
Drift
Move in an unhurried fashion;
The unknown young man drifted among the invited guests
Drift
Cause to be carried by a current;
Drift the boats downstream
Drift
Drive slowly and far afield for grazing;
Drift the cattle herds westwards
Drift
Be subject to fluctuation;
The stock market drifted upward
Drift
Be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of wind or a current;
Snow drifting several feet high
Sand drifting like snow
