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Synonyms

get the drift

Idioms  

  1. Also, catch the drift. Understand the general meaning or purport. For example, I didn't get the drift—do they want to go or not? or Over all the noise he barely managed to catch the drift of their conversation. The noun drift has been used for “purport” since the early 1500s.

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.

And if you don’t quite follow the lingo, you get the drift:

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 9, 2022

Reminiscence Hugh Jackman plays a “private investigator of the mind” who helps clients access lost memories in a dystopian future, and one day a mysterious woman walks into his office— you get the drift.

From The Verge • Jun. 6, 2021

There’s more there, but you get the drift.

From Washington Post • Mar. 6, 2019

I’m not sure what kind of box, but I get the drift.

From The Guardian • Dec. 15, 2018

Mrs. Grant had been vainly trying to get the drift of the conversation, her hand behind her ear.

From The Fortunes of Oliver Horn by Smith, Francis Hopkinson

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.