Adrift

adv. prop. phr. [A prep.¹ on, in + DRIFT. Cf. afloat.]

  1.  In a drifting condition, drifting, at the mercy of wind and tide.

1624.  Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 16. The ship yet went so fast a drift.

1667.  Milton, P. L., XI. 832. With all his verdure spoiled, and trees adrift.

1748.  Anson, Voy., II. ix. (ed. 4), 318. They had immediately turned the canoe adrift.

1853.  Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxviii. (1856), 353. Caught and carried adrift on disengaged ice-floes.

  2.  fig.

1699.  Locke, Hum. Underst., II. vii. § 3. And so we should … let our Thoughts (if I may so call it) run adrift, without any Direction or Design.

1728.  Young, Love of Fame, V. (1757), 138. The mind, when turn’d adrift, no rules to guide, Drives at the mercy of the wind and tide.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Hill & Valley, vii. 106. The concern must be closed and all these people turned adrift.

1878.  Black, Green Past. & Picc., xvii. 139. To cut myself adrift from my relatives.