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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

drifter.

A person who moves from place to place or job to job.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈdɹɪftə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈdɹɪftɚ/General-American
  1. A person who moves from place to place or job to job.

    derogatory · sometimes
  2. A type of lightweight sail used in light winds like a spinnaker.

  3. A driver who uses driving techniques to modify vehicle traction to cause a vehicle to slide or power slide rather than drive in line with the tires.

  4. A parachutist who jumps before the rest of the group to determine wind direction.

  5. A person employed in driving in rock other than coal.

    historical
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English drift Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English drifter From drift (verb) + -er.

noun/ˈdɹɪftə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈdɹɪftɚ/General-American
  1. One who takes part in drift fishing.

  2. A boat used for drift fishing.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English drift Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English drifter From drift (noun) + -er.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.