1. To be carried along by currents of air or water: a balloon drifting eastward; as the wreckage drifted toward shore.
2. To proceed or move unhurriedly and smoothly: drifting among the party guests.
3. To move leisurely or sporadically from place to place, especially without purpose or regular employment: a day laborer, drifting from town to town.
4. 1. To wander from a set course or point of attention; stray.
   2. To vary from or oscillate randomly about a fixed setting, position, or mode of operation.
5. To be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of a current: snow drifting to five feet.

1. To cause to be carried in a current: drifting the logs downstream.
2. To pile up in banks or heaps: Wind drifted the loose straw against the barn.
3. Western U.S. To drive (livestock) slowly or far afield, especially for grazing.

1. The act or condition of drifting.
2. Something moving along in a current of air or water.
3. A bank or pile, as of sand or snow, heaped up by currents of air or water.
4. Geology. Rock debris transported and deposited by or from ice, especially by or from a glacier.
5. 1. A general trend or tendency, as of opinion. See synonyms at tendency.
   2. General meaning or purport; tenor: caught the drift of the conversation.
6. 1. A gradual change in position.
   2. A gradual deviation from an original course, model, method, or intention.
   3. Variation or random oscillation about a fixed setting, position, or mode of behavior.
7. A gradual change in the output of a circuit or amplifier.
8. The rate of flow of a water current.
9. 1. A tool for ramming or driving something down.
   2. A tapered steel pin for enlarging and aligning holes.
10. 1. A horizontal or nearly horizontal passageway in a mine running through or parallel to a vein.
    2. A secondary mine passageway between two main shafts or tunnels.
11. A drove or herd, especially of swine. See synonyms at flock¹.

[From Middle English, drove, herd, act of driving.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.