adrift
/əˈdɹɪft/
adrift adjective: floating at random.
Adjective
adrift (comparative more adrift, superlative most adrift)
- Floating at random.
- So on the sea she shall be set adrift.1673, John Dryden, Marriage à la mode
- Absent from his watch.
- Behind one's opponents, or below a required threshold in terms of score, number or position.
- The team were six points adrift of their rivals.
- The Czech Republic in 1994-95, with a pegged nominal exchange rate and nominal deposit rates of 7 percent, was several percentage points adrift of the interest parity condition.1996, David H. Begg, Monetary Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: Lessons After Half a Decade, International Monetary Fund, →ISBN
Adverb
adrift (comparative more adrift, superlative most adrift)
- In a drifting condition; at the mercy of wind and waves.
- things wore on till eight or nine o'clock, every thing getting adrift and being smashed, and every one on board jamming themselves up in corners or holding on to beams to prevent their going adrift likewise1858, John Mullaly, The Laying of the Cable, Or the Ocean Telegraph, page 231
adrift meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
adrift in Hindi
- floating at random
- अपवाहित apvāhit
adrift in Tamil
- அலைப்புண்டு, பிணைப்பின்றி, திசைமாறிச் செல்லல், மீன்பிடி கலங்கள் காற்றாலோ
adrift in Urdu
- الگ, بےکس, بےسمت, بےٹھکانا, قاصر
adrift in Bengali
- ভাসমান, লক্ষ্যহীন
More languagesFewer languages
- adrift in Malayalam
- പൊങ്ങിയൊഴുകുന്ന, ലക്ഷ്യബോധമില്ലാത്ത, ഗതിതെറ്റിയ
- adrift in Kannada
- ನೆಲೆಯಿಲ್ಲದ, ಲಂಗರು ಕಳಚಿದ, ದಿಕ್ಕುತಪ್ಪಿ ತೇಲುವ, ದೂರ ಸರಿದ
- adrift in Nepali
- एड्रिफ्ट
- adrift in Malay
- hanyut
Examples of adrift in a sentence
- He did well, coming second, but Toyota and Mitsubishi were now neck-and-neck, with the Subaru team 38 points adrift of the leaders.2006, Brian Long, Subaru Impreza: The Road Car & WRC Story, →ISBN, page 56:
- Boro were left needing snookers after a toothless goalless draw with Dead Men Walking Doncaster left them well adrift and fading in the chase for a Championship play-off place.2012 April 18, Anthony Vickers, “Boro 0 Doncaster Rovers 0”, in The Evening Gazette (Teesside):
- Brendan Rodgers's team moved into the top 10 in the Premier League table, but they are nine points adrift of West Ham in fourth place, while Arsenal are sixth.2014 December 21, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 2 - 2 Arsenal”, in BBC:
- Treasury could also ask why High Speed 2's finances are so adrift from what was promised.2024 September 4, Philip Haigh, “Can public-private partnerships be made to deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1017, page 53:
Forms of adrift
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more adrift |
| superlative | most adrift |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more adrift |
| superlative | most adrift |
Origin of adrift
From a- + drift.
Words formed from adrift
Phrases with adrift
Words that rhyme with adrift
Questions about adrift
- What does adrift mean?
- Adrift means floating at random.
- What is adrift in Hindi?
- Adrift in Hindi is अपवाहित (apvāhit). See Adrift meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use adrift in a sentence?
- He did well, coming second, but Toyota and Mitsubishi were now neck-and-neck, with the Subaru team 38 points adrift of the leaders.
- What part of speech is adrift?
- Adrift can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce adrift?
- Adrift is pronounced /əˈdɹɪft/.
Words near adrift in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: adrift (page history and authors); adrift (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adrift (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adrift (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adrift (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adrift (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); adrift (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-adrift.ogg.
Cite this entry: “adrift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/adrift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.