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(), 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. The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings. King Alisaunder (1332). 2. 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. South. 3. Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting. "Our drift was south." Hakluyt. 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. He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general. Addison. Now thou knowest my drift. Sir W. Scott. 5. That which is driven, forced, or urged along; as: (a) Anything driven at random. "Some log . 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. 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.] Drift (), v. t. 1. To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body. J. H. Newman. 2. To drive into heaps; as, a current of wind drifts snow or sand. 3. (Mach.) To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift. Drift a.That causes drifting or that is drifted; movable by wind or currents; as, drift currents; drift ice; drift mud. Kane. 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. Drift n. 1. (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. 2. (Aronautics) 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. スポンサード リンク
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