noun
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a person or thing that drifts
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a person who moves aimlessly from place to place, usually without a regular job
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a boat used for drift-net fishing
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nautical a large jib of thin material used in light breezes
Etymology
Origin of drifter
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A swaggering drifter named Hal Carter arrives in town looking for work, and by sunset he has thrown the community, especially the fragile Madge Owens, into emotional turmoil.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026
A drifter and petty criminal, he had spent much of his time between 2000 and 2017 in the Algarve.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2025
Benji, something of a chatty drifter, has never quite found himself, at least not by David’s standards.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2024
It might have helped if Siff had a sturdier partner, but Alexander’s wan emo sensibility lacks the haunted charisma of a sexy drifter attempting to move on from his past.
From New York Times • Jul. 18, 2023
I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is also remarkably freeing.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
