adriftadjective [ after verb ]
usuk/əˈdrɪft/If a boat is adrift, it is moving on the water but is not controlled by anyone because of a problem:
He spent three days adrift on his yacht.
If a person is adrift, they do not have a clear purpose in life or know what they want to do:
Da Silva plays a bright, lonely student from New York, adrift in small-town Arizona.
go/come adrift informal
to become loose:
The hem of my skirt's come adrift again.
go adrift informal
If plans go adrift, they fail or do not produce the correct results:
Something seems to have gone adrift in our calculations.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Terms for location & direction used at sea
- abaft
- afloat
- aft
- aground
- amidships
- ashore
- astern
- deck
- fore
- inshore
- offshore
- onshore
- out
- overboard
- shore
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Useless and futile
Flexible, loose and yielding
Faults and mistakes