Adrift
adjective
Not controlled or guided, and moving about freely.
After the storm, their boat was left adrift at sea.
Often appears as...
- set adrift
- cut adrift
adjective
Without purpose or guidance, lost.
After losing his job, he felt adrift in life.
Often appears as...
- feel adrift
- be left adrift
Usage tips
Disapproving
adverb
To float freely without control or guidance.
The ship is adrift off the coast.
Often appears as...
- go adrift
- come adrift
adjective
Not controlled or guided, and moving about freely.
After the storm, their boat was left adrift at sea.
Often appears as...
- set adrift
- cut adrift
adjective
Without purpose or guidance, lost.
After losing his job, he felt adrift in life.
Often appears as...
- feel adrift
- be left adrift
Usage tips
Disapproving
adverb
To float freely without control or guidance.
The ship is adrift off the coast.
Often appears as...
- go adrift
- come adrift
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/2Physical Displacement
Use 'adrift' to describe something physically floating without direction, often at sea.
The abandoned ship was adrift in the ocean currents.
Pro Tip 2/2Loss of Control
'Adrift' implies an object or person has lost its controlling force, like a rudder or leader.
With their leader gone, the group was left adrift.
Pro Tip 1/2Physical Displacement
Use 'adrift' to describe something physically floating without direction, often at sea.
The abandoned ship was adrift in the ocean currents.
Pro Tip 2/2Loss of Control
'Adrift' implies an object or person has lost its controlling force, like a rudder or leader.
With their leader gone, the group was left adrift.
Pro Tip 1/2Physical Displacement
Use 'adrift' to describe something physically floating without direction, often at sea.
The abandoned ship was adrift in the ocean currents.
Pro Tip 2/2Loss of Control
'Adrift' implies an object or person has lost its controlling force, like a rudder or leader.
With their leader gone, the group was left adrift.
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Video examples
The lies our culture...
social freedom sucks. The unrooted man is the adrift man. The unrooted man is the unremembered man, because he's uncommitted to things. Freedom is not an ocean you want to swim in, it's a river you want to get across, so you can commit and plant yourself on the other side. The second thing I learned
Video examples
Paul Sereno: What can...
and unusual in our two-legged approach to life. Now, if you want to understand what happened then when the continents broke apart, and dinosaurs found -- landlubbers, as they are -- found themselves adrift. There's some missing puzzle pieces.
Video examples
An honest look at the...
With so many of us shell-shocked and adrift about what has happened to us, we're going to have to build up from the grassroots, forming what I think are resilience circles. These are small groups of people coming together
Video examples
I grew up in the...
but most of them didn't. And -- given my history, it was more than I could've hoped for -- forgiveness and the benefit of the doubt. It still amazes me. I spent my first year away from home adrift with my younger sister,
Video examples
Founding Father's Real...
of adrift in the world he depended on his father for his financial stability there's no longer any hope that he can go to England to get the kind of education that many people of his standing in society would expect
Video examples
Let's make the world...
When it was clear that nobody in our generation wanted to take on the heavy burden of ranching, the ranch was sold to a neighbor. The anchor of our lives was cut, and we felt adrift in the absence of that land.
Video examples
There's more to life...
Everyone said the path to happiness was success, so I searched for that ideal job, that perfect boyfriend, that beautiful apartment. But instead of ever feeling fulfilled, I felt anxious and adrift.
Video examples
The human skills we need...
if we use it. We have deep talents of inventiveness and exploration -- if we apply them. We are brave enough to invent things we've never seen before. Lose those skills, and we are adrift.
Video examples
3 Lessons on Hope in...
It's easy to feel helpless, out of control, adrift. But at the end of the day, try letting go of what you can't control and just focus on what you can control.
Video examples
Cuba's Animal Underworld...
but they still need water for one thing to breed each crab is carrying a pouch of precious eggs and now she has to cast on adrift
Video examples
The lies our culture...
social freedom sucks. The unrooted man is the adrift man. The unrooted man is the unremembered man, because he's uncommitted to things. Freedom is not an ocean you want to swim in, it's a river you want to get across, so you can commit and plant yourself on the other side. The second thing I learned
Video examples
Paul Sereno: What can...
and unusual in our two-legged approach to life. Now, if you want to understand what happened then when the continents broke apart, and dinosaurs found -- landlubbers, as they are -- found themselves adrift. There's some missing puzzle pieces.
Video examples
An honest look at the...
With so many of us shell-shocked and adrift about what has happened to us, we're going to have to build up from the grassroots, forming what I think are resilience circles. These are small groups of people coming together
Video examples
I grew up in the...
but most of them didn't. And -- given my history, it was more than I could've hoped for -- forgiveness and the benefit of the doubt. It still amazes me. I spent my first year away from home adrift with my younger sister,
Video examples
Founding Father's Real...
of adrift in the world he depended on his father for his financial stability there's no longer any hope that he can go to England to get the kind of education that many people of his standing in society would expect
Video examples
Let's make the world...
When it was clear that nobody in our generation wanted to take on the heavy burden of ranching, the ranch was sold to a neighbor. The anchor of our lives was cut, and we felt adrift in the absence of that land.
Video examples
There's more to life...
Everyone said the path to happiness was success, so I searched for that ideal job, that perfect boyfriend, that beautiful apartment. But instead of ever feeling fulfilled, I felt anxious and adrift.
Video examples
The human skills we need...
if we use it. We have deep talents of inventiveness and exploration -- if we apply them. We are brave enough to invent things we've never seen before. Lose those skills, and we are adrift.
Video examples
3 Lessons on Hope in...
It's easy to feel helpless, out of control, adrift. But at the end of the day, try letting go of what you can't control and just focus on what you can control.
Video examples
Cuba's Animal Underworld...
but they still need water for one thing to breed each crab is carrying a pouch of precious eggs and now she has to cast on adrift
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Ryan Coogler
American Director
I came up with this really crazy idea, this really small personal story that takes place in a universe that we are familiar with. Rocky is retired, kind of set adrift. He's very lonely in his world. His life has gone by waiting for the inevitable. It's not 'Rocky 7.
Quote examples
Jeff Carlson
American Author
I think we're programmed for hardship. In my experience, human beings are happiest when they're working themselves to the bone. People are more likely to feel adrift and unsatisfied when they have too much leisure time. Obstacles are good.
Quote examples
Andrew O'Hagan
Scottish Novelist
Novelists are no more moral or certain than anybody else; we are ideologically adrift, and if we are any good then our writing will live in several places at once. That is both our curse and our charm.
Quote examples
Georges Duhamel
French Novelist
The swimmer adrift on the open seas measures his strength, and strives with all his muscles to keep himself afloat. But what is he to do when there is no land on the horizon, and none beyond it?
Quote examples
Rhiannon Giddens
American Musician
I always felt culturally adrift as a child because I'm mixed race. I've had to deal with that since I was little. Who am I? What makeup do I have? What are the black and the white?
Quote examples
Monty Don
English Celebrity
I loathe nowheres - airports and bland hotels. I would rather be in an unpleasant, uncomfortable place rather than one just adrift, floating around.
Quote examples
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
American Poet
When a man cuts himself absolutely adrift from custom, what an astonishingly light spar floats him! How few his wants are, after all!
Quote examples
Walter Mosley
American Novelist
Losing my parents really set me adrift in more ways than one. It's not just losing them. It's losing the possibility of family.
Quote examples
Francis Parker Yockey
American Writer
To an intellectual who is adrift in politics, a theory is an aim; to a true politician his theory is a boundary.
Quote examples
Ed O'Neill
American Actor
I was adrift for a while. I worked as a substitute teacher; I sold cars.
Quote examples
Ryan Coogler
American Director
I came up with this really crazy idea, this really small personal story that takes place in a universe that we are familiar with. Rocky is retired, kind of set adrift. He's very lonely in his world. His life has gone by waiting for the inevitable. It's not 'Rocky 7.
Quote examples
Jeff Carlson
American Author
I think we're programmed for hardship. In my experience, human beings are happiest when they're working themselves to the bone. People are more likely to feel adrift and unsatisfied when they have too much leisure time. Obstacles are good.
Quote examples
Andrew O'Hagan
Scottish Novelist
Novelists are no more moral or certain than anybody else; we are ideologically adrift, and if we are any good then our writing will live in several places at once. That is both our curse and our charm.
Quote examples
Georges Duhamel
French Novelist
The swimmer adrift on the open seas measures his strength, and strives with all his muscles to keep himself afloat. But what is he to do when there is no land on the horizon, and none beyond it?
Quote examples
Rhiannon Giddens
American Musician
I always felt culturally adrift as a child because I'm mixed race. I've had to deal with that since I was little. Who am I? What makeup do I have? What are the black and the white?
Quote examples
Monty Don
English Celebrity
I loathe nowheres - airports and bland hotels. I would rather be in an unpleasant, uncomfortable place rather than one just adrift, floating around.
Quote examples
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
American Poet
When a man cuts himself absolutely adrift from custom, what an astonishingly light spar floats him! How few his wants are, after all!
Quote examples
Walter Mosley
American Novelist
Losing my parents really set me adrift in more ways than one. It's not just losing them. It's losing the possibility of family.
Quote examples
Francis Parker Yockey
American Writer
To an intellectual who is adrift in politics, a theory is an aim; to a true politician his theory is a boundary.
Quote examples
Ed O'Neill
American Actor
I was adrift for a while. I worked as a substitute teacher; I sold cars.
Example 1 of 10
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