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Definition of adrift adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

adrift

adjective
 
/əˈdrɪft/
 
/əˈdrɪft/
[not before noun]
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  1. if a boat or a person in a boat is adrift, the boat is not tied to anything or is floating without being controlled by anyone
    • The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days.
    • Their boat had been set adrift.
    Topics Transport by waterc2
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    • come
    • go
    preposition
    • from
    • in
    • of
    See full entry
  2. (of a person) feeling alone and without a direction or an aim in life
    • young people adrift in the big city
    • Without language, human beings are cast adrift.
    • She felt cast adrift in a vulgar, materialistic society.
    Topics Feelingsc2
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    • come
    • go
    preposition
    • from
    • in
    • of
    See full entry
  3. no longer attached or fixed in the right position
    • I nearly suffocated when the pipe on my breathing apparatus came adrift.
    • (figurative) She had been cut adrift from everything she had known.
    • (figurative) Our plans had gone badly adrift.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    • come
    • go
    preposition
    • from
    • in
    • of
    See full entry
  4. adrift (of somebody/something) (especially British English) (in sport) behind the score or position of your opponents
    • The team are now just six points adrift of the leaders.
  5. Word Originlate 16th cent.: from a-, ‘on, in’ + drift.
See adrift in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
previously
adverb
 
 
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