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# drift

«drift» in Mova's school dictionary: **to be carried slowly along by water or air, without control** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (drift, drifts, drifted, drifting); noun (a drift, drifts)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To drift means to be carried slowly along by water or air, without control. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#m1)

2) To drift means to move or change slowly without a plan: drift off to sleep, drift apart. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#m2)

3) A drift is a big pile of snow or sand blown by the wind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#m3)

4) The drift of what someone says is its general meaning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In geography and science, boats, leaves and icebergs drift on water; continents slowly drift over millions of years. In winter, snowdrifts block roads. In safety lessons at the beach, inflatables can drift out to sea, so stay close to shore. Phrases: drift off, drift apart, snowdrift, get the drift.

### examples

- The boat drifted down the river. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x1)
- Leaves drifted slowly to the ground. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x2)
- I drifted off to sleep during the film. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x3)
- The snow made huge drifts by the door. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x4)
- Don't let your inflatable drift out to sea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x5)
- The continents drift very slowly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x6)
- Do you get my drift? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x7)
- The boat drifted farther and farther away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/#x8)

### note

Regular verb: drifted. Countable noun: a drift, drifts; snowdrift is one word. Safety: if you drift out at sea, stay calm, float, wave and shout for help; don't swim against a rip current.

### In the corpora

- [Drifting along, the Mole trails a paw in the water and dreams.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/26-willows-ch1-part2-the-river-and-the-wild-wood/2/)
- [People looking at a phone while walking drift off line and notice less around them.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/11-eyes-up/7/)
- [The boys look at her, look at each other, and drift off muttering.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/370-standing-by-a-friend/7/)
- [Drifting can be fixed, too, when there's a real problem to talk about.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/464-growing-apart/24/)
- [Drifting apart can hurt even when there has been no fight.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/464-growing-apart/37/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «drift» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/drift/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.