adv. (B. E. and GROSE: now accepted).—‘Loose—I’ll turn ye ADRIFT, a Tar phrase; I’ll prevent ye doing me any harm’ (B. E., c. 1696); also (GROSE) ‘ADRIFT, discharged.’ Hence = astray, puzzled, distracted.
1690. LOCKE, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, II. vii. 3. And so we should … let our Thoughts run ADRIFT without any Direction or Design [The earliest quot. in O.E.D. for the figurative sense: the sea-phrase dates from 1624].
