drifter

American  

[drif-ter] / ˈdrɪf tər /

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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drifter British  

/ ˈdrɪftə /

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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Etymology

Origin of drifter

First recorded in 1860–65; drift + -er ¹

Explanation

An aimless wanderer, someone without a permanent home, is a drifter. Your distant cousin who parks his camper in your driveway for a few weeks and then moves on? You can call him a drifter. The original meaning of drifter was a miner whose job was excavating horizontal tunnels, which were known as drifts. Starting around 1880, it was also used for a type of fishing boat that used drift nets. For most of the 20th century, however, the most common use of drifter was to describe a vagrant, homeless person, or someone whose lifestyle involved drifting from place to place.

Example Sentences

The tag was also, incidentally, a play on “The Blue Dahlia,” a 1946 movie written by Raymond Chandler and starring Veronica Lake as a plucky drifter who helps the hero track down his wife’s murderer.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

A drifter, he lived in Portugal's Algarve region, on and off, for years.

From BBC • May 9, 2025

“A man makes his choices,” Baldwin’s crusty, guilt-ridden drifter says to his grandkid at one point.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2025

This drifter comes in and says there is nothing wrong with this Asian family, and folks should resist groupthink.

From Salon • Jan. 19, 2024

Or it could be a drifter who had come through town and they’d buried him where he’d dropped dead.

From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool

Related Words

• hobo
• transient
• unhoused person