adrift
adjective /əˈdrɪft/
/əˈdrɪft/
[not before noun]- 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.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- come
- go
- …
- from
- in
- of
- …
- (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.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- come
- go
- …
- from
- in
- of
- …
- 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
- …
- from
- in
- of
- …
- 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.
Word Originlate 16th cent.: from a-, ‘on, in’ + drift.