- 1if a boat or a person in a boat is adrift, the boat is not tied to anything and is floating without being controlled by anyone The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days.
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- 2(of a person) feeling alone and without a direction or an aim in life young people adrift in the big city Idioms
(usually passive) to leave someone to be carried away on a boat that is not being controlled by anyone (figurative) Without language, human beings are cast adrift.
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