adrift, adv., prop. phr.
(əˈdrɪft)
[a prep.1 on, in + drift. Cf. afloat.]
1. In a drifting condition, drifting, at the mercy of wind and tide.
| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia i. 16 The ship yet went so fast a drift. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 832 With all his verdure spoiled, and trees adrift. 1748 Anson Voy. ii. ix. (ed. 4) 318 They had immediately turned the canoe adrift. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxviii. (1856) 353 Caught and carried adrift on disengaged ice-floes. |
2. fig.
| 1690 Locke Hum. Underst. ii. vii. §3 And so we should..let our Thoughts (if I may so call it) run adrift, without any Direction or Design. 1728 Young Love of Fame v. (1757) 138 The mind, when turn'd adrift, no rules to guide, Drives at the mercy of the wind and tide. 1832 H. Martineau Hill & Valley vii. 106 The concern must be closed and all these people turned adrift. 1878 Black Green Past. & Picc. xvii. 139 To cut myself adrift from my relatives. |
b. Of a serviceman or merchant seaman: absent without leave; late returning from leave. Also of an object: unfastened, missing. colloq. (chiefly Naut.).
| 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 7 Adrift, see A.W.L. 1942 Gen 1 Sept. 13/1, I mustn't be adrift too late. [Note (1 Oct. 61/2): The words ‘too late’ are..superfluous.] 1946 J. Irving Royal Navalese 20 Adrift, absent without leave; late for Divisions or a muster... In a secondary sense it also means that something has become undone or unfastened. 1960 C. MacInnes Mr. Love & Justice 7 A bad discharge-book, too: adrift in Yokohama and repatriated at official expense. 1962 C. Evans Heart of Standing 19 Make sure you get everything checked in and signed off, because if there's anything adrift it will come off your slop chit, nobody else's. 1979 N. W. Allington Fireman! ii. 28 Anything not secured properly is said to have ‘come adrift’. |
c. Short or wide of a target, estimate, etc.; behind (the position or score of a competitor). Freq. const. of. colloq.
| 1976 Leicester Mercury 14 Oct. 46/1 Rose was adrift with a couple of penalties before Leicestershire opened their account. 1976 Evening Post (Nottingham) 15 Dec. 23/2 She finished third in 2 min. 14.2 sec.—well adrift of Katrina Colebrook who set a new UK indoor best time of 2 min. 5 sec. 1977 J. Laker One-Day Cricket 66 Their score had reached a wonderful 276 for 4, only 52 runs adrift. 1978 Guardian Weekly 15 Jan. 1/3 That will leave the United States 100 billion dollars adrift on its balance of payments. 1983 Times 6 June 18/2 Reed..was already {pstlg}16m adrift at the pretax level at the nine-month stage. |