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.
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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.
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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]
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