adrift

adverb or adjective

1
: without motive power and without anchor or mooring
a boat adrift on the sea
2
: without ties, guidance, or security
people morally adrift
3
: free from restraint or support

Examples of adrift in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Atkins and Jackson are left adrift, watching disapprovingly while Poppa and Junior have all the fun. Dave Nemetz, TVLine, 18 Oct. 2024 Trump set himself adrift, veering off the teleprompter for long stretches. Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 21 July 2024 After years adrift, he was embraced back into the Giants fold for for good when former owner Peter Magowan signed Mays to a lifetime contract in 1993. Dan Brown, The Mercury News, 18 June 2024 Odell’s ideas gallop between twentieth-century time studies and ancient Chinese water clocks, Amazonian factory floors and Zoom rooms set adrift, mastery journals, Mojave poetry, second shifts, segregated leisure, Ice Age sea floors and present-day climate crisis. Gabriela Riccardi, Quartz, 22 Mar. 2023 See all Example Sentences for adrift 

Word History

First Known Use

1578, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of adrift was in 1578

Dictionary Entries Near adrift

Cite this Entry

“Adrift.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adrift. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

adrift

adverb or adjective
1
: without power or anchor
a ship adrift in the storm
2
: without guidance or purpose
alone and adrift in the city
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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