Drĭft1, n.
n. [From drive; L. Ger. & D. drift, a driving, Icel. drift, snow-drift, Dan. drift, drift, impulse, drove, herd, pasturage, common, Ger. trift, pasturage, drove, A-S. drif, m., a driving.]
Sense 1. That which is driven, forced, or urged along; a mass of any thing carried onward together; as, (a.) A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together into its present position; as, a drift of snow, of ice, of sand, and the like.
Drifts of rising dust involve the sky. Pope. We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift [of ice]. Kane.
(b.) A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds, &c.
Cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drifts doing much damage to the highways). Fuller.
Sense 2. The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.
A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interposes. South.
Sense 3. Course or direction along which any thing is driven. “Our drift was south.” Hackluyt.
Sense 4. The tendency of an act, argument, course of conduct, or the like; object aimed at or intended; hence, also, import or meaning of words; aim.
He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general. Addison.
Now thou knowest my drift. W. Scott.
Sense 5. (Arch.) The horizontal force which an arch exerts, tending to overset the pier. Gwilt.
Sense 6. (Geol.) A collection of loose earth and rocks, or bowlders, distributed over large portions of the earth’s surface, especially in latitudes north of forty degrees, and which have come from the northward.
Sense 7. (Mech.) A conical hand-tool of steel for enlarging or shaping a hole in metal, by being driven into or through it.
Sense 8. (Mil.) A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.
Sense 9. (Mining.) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a passage made for a road under ground.
Sense 10. (Naut.) The direction of a current; also, the distance to which a vessel is drawn off from her desired course by currents or other causes; also, a piece in the sheer-draught, where the rail is cut off, and usually terminated with a scroll; — called also drift-piece. Totten.
Sense 11. (Ship Carp.) The difference between the size of a bolt and the hole into which it is driven, or between the circumference of a hoop and that of the mast on which it is to be driven. Ogilvie.
Drift of the forest (Eng. Law), an examination or view of the cattle in a forest, in order to see whose they are, whether they are commonable, and to determine whether or not the forest is surcharged. Burrill.