▪ I. ˈdrifting, vbl. n.
[f. drift v. + -ing1.]
1. a. The action of the verb drift, q.v.; also concr. (pl.) that which is drifted.
| 1821 Keats Isabella xiv, The rich-ored driftings of the flood. 1891 Echo 10 Mar. 3/3 The drifting has caused many roads to be impassable. |
† b. Putting off; lapse (of time). Obs.
| 1610 J. Forbes Certain Rec. (1846) II. x. 496 No drifting of time sould cause them to alter. |
† c. Scheming, machination. Obs.
| 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. xii. lxxv. (1612) 313 Italian Driftings, and such Sinnes. |
2. spec. in Mining (see drift v. 7). Also attrib.
| 1853 Harper's Mag. VI. 447 The shafting and drifting gets only the copper which is in the immediate course of those operations. 1882 Rep. Prec. Metals (U.S. Bureau of Mint) i. 70 This mine has been worked by the drifting method. Ibid. iii. 635 A..portion of the gravels or ‘wash’..is removed by..drifting, from underneath worthless or comparatively barren ground. 1897 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 50/2 Drifting picks, adze eye, oil finish. 1927 R. Peele Mining Engineers' Handbk. (ed. 2) x. 500 All types of rock drill are used for drifting and crosscutting. 1952 M. H. Haddock Basis Mine Surveying vii. 259 Drifting in coal-mining has nearly always been between parallel strata with the frequently assured certainty of locating the deposit sought. |
▪ II. ˈdrifting, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That drifts; see the verb.
| 1749 F. Smith Voy. Disc. II. 43 Intensely cold, with excessive Frost and drifting Snow. 1847 Emerson Poems, Woodnotes Wks. (Bohn) I. 423 Drifting sand-heaps. 1890 Boldrewood Col. Reformer (1891) 331 The gaunt, perishing seaman on the drifting raft. |
† b. Designing, aiming, scheming. Obs.
| 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. liii. (1612) 239 Ill drifting Rome and Spaine. |
Hence ˈdriftingly adv.
| 1859 Chamb. Jrnl. XI. 128 The fading clouds, all driftingly, Submerge. 1895 A. Austin in Blackw. Mag. 639/2 To fish driftingly from one end of Lough Inagh to another. |