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Showing results for get the drift. Search instead for Get the drift of.
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.

The strapped family eking out an existence on $500,000 featured in one such piece had fully-funded retirement and college plans, payments on two luxury cars, “date nights” every other week ... you get the drift.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 10, 2025

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

You’re probably starting to get the drift: The foundation for Sax’s theory is light on evidence, heavy on old fuddy-duddy.

From Slate • Jan. 22, 2016

She began to get the drift of the questions—which Pancrazio answered with reserve.

From The Lost Girl by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)

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.