Drifting

How to spell drifting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce drifting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does drifting mean?

1. verbBeing carried along slowly and steadily by water, air, or some other gradual force.
2. verbMoving or living without a clear direction, plan, or purpose.

Drifting in a sentence

• The empty boat kept drifting further from the shore.

• After leaving the job he spent a year drifting from city to city.

• Smoke from the bonfire was drifting across the garden.

• Their conversation kept drifting back to money problems.

Where does drifting come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word 'drift' comes from the same Germanic source as the verb 'drive', and originally meant a driving or being driven along, especially by water, wind, or snow. Middle English took it up partly from Old Norse 'drift', which named a heap of snow piled by the wind, and partly from related Low German and Dutch forms. From the literal idea of being carried by a current came the figurative senses of moving aimlessly or sliding gradually from one state to another. The '-ing' ending here is the ordinary English participle and gerund suffix that turns the action into a continuous or noun-like form, so the spelling is simply the unchanged root 'drift' with '-ing' added, with no doubled letter because 'drift' ends in two consonants. Because the link to 'drive' has faded, modern writers feel the word as wholly its own, and the only mild trap is remembering the silent ease of the single 't'.

How the word is built

• drift (root: to be carried by a current)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)