Word.ws English Dictionary

getting the drift

getting the drift is the present participle and gerund of get the drift.

Meaning of get the drift

Verb

get the drift (third-person singular simple present gets the drift, present participle getting the drift, simple past got the drift, past participle (UK) got the drift or (US) gotten the drift)

  1. (idiomatic) To understand, at least on some basic or general level.
    • I don't really read French, but I can often guess enough to get the drift.

Questions about getting the drift

What is getting the drift the present participle and gerund of?
Getting the drift is the present participle and gerund of get the drift.

Words near getting the drift in the dictionary

  1. getting the bullet
  2. getting the chop
  3. getting the dirty water off one's chest
  4. getting the door
  5. getting the drawers
  6. getting the drift
  7. getting the drop on
  8. getting the goods on
  9. getting the hang of
  10. getting the hint
  11. getting the idea

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting the drift (page history and authors); get the drift (page history and authors). 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.

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Cite this entry: “getting the drift.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/getting_the_drift. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.