Word Meanings - DRIFT - Book Publishers vocabulary database

The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments. Knight. (more info) drift snowdrift, Dan. drift, impulse, drove, herd, pasture, common, 1. A driving; a violent movement. The dragon drew him away with drift

Additional info about word: DRIFT

The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments. Knight. (more info) drift snowdrift, Dan. drift, impulse, drove, herd, pasture, common, 1. A driving; a violent movement. The dragon drew him away with drift of his wings. King Alisaunder . 2. The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse. A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose. South. 3. Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting. "Our drift was south." Hakluyt. 4. The tendency of an act, argument, course of conduct, or the like; object aimed at or intended; intention; hence, also, import or meaning of a sentence or discourse; aim. He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general. Addison. Now thou knowest my drift. Sir W. Scott. 5. That which is driven, forced, or urged along; as: Anything driven at random. "Some log . . . a useless drift." Dryden. A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, etc., esp. by wind or water; as, a drift of snow, of ice, of sand, and the like. Drifts of rising dust involve the sky. Pope. We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift . Kane. A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds. Cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drift doing much damage to the high ways). Fuller.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of DRIFT)

• Aim
• Tendency
• intent
• aspiration
• bent
• drift
• object
• scope
• goal
• purpose
• mark
• end
• design
• intention
• Import
• Purport
• meaning
• tenor
• significance
• fulfill
• Design
• purport
• aim
• view
• import
• bearing
• signification
• current
• spirit
• Scope
• room
• occasion
• opportunity
• liberty

Possible antonyms: (opposite words of DRIFT)

• Chance
• risk
• hazard
• revoke
• Miscalculate
• venture
• stake

Related words: (words related to DRIFT)

• SPIRITUOUS
  1. Having the quality of spirit; tenuous in substance, and having active powers or properties; ethereal; immaterial; spiritual; pure. 2. Containing, or of the nature of, alcoholic spirit; consisting of refined spirit; alcoholic; ardent;
• CHANCELLERY
  Chancellorship. Gower.
• HAZARDIZE
  A hazardous attempt or situation; hazard. Herself had run into that hazardize. Spenser.
• DESIGN
  drawing, dessein a plan or scheme; all, ultimately, from L. designare to designate; de- + signare to mark, mark out, signum mark, sign. See 1. To draw preliminary outline or main features of; to sketch for a pattern or model; to delineate; to trace
• REVOKER
  One who revokes.
• INTENTIONALITY
  The quality or state of being intentional; purpose; design. Coleridge.
• OBJECTIVENESS
  Objectivity. Is there such a motion or objectiveness of external bodies, which produceth light Sir M. Hale
• DRIFTBOLT
  A bolt for driving out other bolts.
• DESIGNATE
  Designated; appointed; chosen. Sir G. Buck.
• SCOPELINE
  Scopeloid.
• PURPOSELESS
  Having no purpose or result; objectless. Bp. Hall. -- Pur"pose*less*ness, n.
• PURPORTLESS
  Without purport or meaning.
• IMPORTUNELY
  In an importune manner.
• VENTURESOME
  Inclined to venture; not loth to run risk or danger; venturous; bold; daring; adventurous; as, a venturesome boy or act. -- Ven"ture*some*ly, adv. -- Ven"ture*some*ness, n.
• OCCASIONALISM
  The system of occasional causes; -- a name given to certain theories of the Cartesian school of philosophers, as to the intervention of the First Cause, by which they account for the apparent reciprocal action of the soul and the body.
• SPIRITUALIZE
  To extract spirit from; also, to convert into, or impregnate with, spirit. (more info) 1. To refine intellectiually or morally; to purify from the corrupting influence of the world; to give a spiritual character or tendency to; as, to spiritualize
• OBJECTIST
  One who adheres to, or is skilled in, the objective philosophy. Ed. Rev.
• DRIFTPIECE
  An upright or curved piece of timber connecting the plank sheer with the gunwale; also, a scroll terminating a rail.
• SPIRITUOSITY
  The quality or state of being spirituous; spirituousness.
• IMPORTUNATOR
  One who importunes; an importuner. Sir E. Sandys.
• PUBLIC-SPIRITED
  1. Having, or exercising, a disposition to advance the interest of the community or public; as, public-spirited men. 2. Dictated by a regard to public good; as, a public-spirited project or measure. Addison. -- Pub"lic-spir`it*ed*ly,
• WATER-BEARER
  The constellation Aquarius.
• DISVENTURE
  A disadventure. Shelton.
• HAEMATOSCOPE
  A hæmoscope.
• MISDEMEAN
  To behave ill; -- with a reflexive pronoun; as, to misdemean one's self.
• DEMEANURE
  Behavior. Spenser.
• DIRECT CURRENT
  A current flowing in one direction only; -- distinguished from alternating current. When steady and not pulsating a direct current is often called a continuous current. A direct induced current, or momentary current of the same direction as the
• LACTOSCOPE
  An instrument for estimating the amount of cream contained in milk by ascertaining its relative opacity.
• METEOROSCOPE
  An astrolabe; a planisphere. An instrument for measuring the position, length, and direction, of the apparent path of a shooting star.
• JAPAN CURRENT
  A branch of the equatorial current of the Pacific, washing the eastern coast of Formosa and thence flowing northeastward past Japan and merging into the easterly drift of the North Pacific; -- called also Kuro-Siwo, or Black Stream, in allusion
• SHIELD-BEARER
  Any small moth of the genus Aspidisca, whose larva makes a shieldlike covering for itself out of bits of leaves. (more info) 1. One who, or that which, carries a shield.