1. Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another
   "a drifting double-dealer";
   - floating, vagabond, vagrant

1. Aimless wandering from place to place
   "His years of drifting finally led him to settle in a small coastal town"

1. Be in motion due to some air or water current
   "the boat drifted on the lake"; "the shipwrecked boat drifted away from the shore";
   - float, be adrift, blow
    
2. Move about aimlessly or without any fixed destination
   "the labourers drift from one town to the next";
   - roll, wander, swan [informal], stray, tramp, roam, cast, ramble, rove, range, vagabond [archaic]
    
3. Wander from a direct course or at random
   "don't drift from the set course";
   - stray, err
    
4. Vary or move from a fixed point or course
   "stock prices are drifting higher"
    
5. Move in an unhurried fashion
   "The unknown young man drifted among the invited guests"
    
6. Live unhurriedly, irresponsibly, or freely
   "My son drifted around for years in California before going to law school";
   - freewheel
    
7. Cause to be carried by a current
   "drift the boats downstream"
    
8. Be subject to fluctuation
   "The stock market drifted upward"
    
9. Be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of wind or a current
   "snow drifting several feet high"; "sand drifting like snow"
    
10. Drive slowly and far afield for grazing
    "drift the cattle herds westwards"

Derived forms: driftings

See also: unsettled

Type of: accumulate, amass, change, circulate, conglomerate, crop, cumulate, exist, float, gather, go, graze, live, locomote, move, pasture, pile up, roving, subsist, survive, travel, vagabondage, vary, wandering

Encyclopedia: Drifting, Pennsylvania