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drifter

[drif-ter]
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noun
  1. a person or thing that drifts.
  2. a person who goes from place to place, job to job, etc., remaining in each for a short period.
  3. Also called drift boat. a boat used in fishing with a drift net.
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Origin of drifter

First recorded in 1860–65; drift + -er1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

transienthoboitinerantvagranttrampnomadvagabondderelict

Examples from the Web for drifter

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Bill said he was a drifter—a dangerous maniac who must have been crazed by the sun.

    The Man the Martians Made

    Frank Belknap Long

  • The drifter, the unstable, the good-for-nothing—did not falter.

    Five Tales

    John Galsworthy

  • As I look back on it, it strikes me I always have been more or less of a drifter.

    J. Poindexter, Colored

    Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb

  • At best he will become an indifferent citizen; at worst a drifter or a criminal.

    Think

    Col. Wm. C. Hunter

  • He had, like Hadji the beggar, become in twenty-four hours again a drifter.

    Down the Mother Lode

    Vivia Hemphill

British Dictionary definitions for drifter

drifter

noun
  1. a person or thing that drifts
  2. a person who moves aimlessly from place to place, usually without a regular job
  3. a boat used for drift-net fishing
  4. nautical a large jib of thin material used in light breezes
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for drifter

n.

1864, as a mining term; 1883, "boat fishing with drift-nets;" agent noun from drift (v.). Meaning "vagrant" is from 1908.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper