adrift adv 🔊

1. In or into a drifting condition; moved (especially on water by waves and wind) without being propelled or steered.
2. (figurative)
   1. Not in the expected or usual place or position; awry; also, not following the expected or usual course; astray, off course.
   2. (originally nautical) In an unattached or unfastened condition; apart, loose, off.
   3. (originally and chiefly UK, sports, informal) Chiefly followed by of: in a position or having a score behind that of another competitor or an opponent.

adrift adj

1. Drifting (especially on water) without being propelled or steered.
2. (figurative)
   1. Of a person or group of people: having no aim or direction; aimless, lost.
   2. (nautical) Of a sailor: absent without leave or permission.
   3. (originally nautical) Of an object: no longer attached in position; detached, loose, unattached, unfastened; also, lost, missing.
   4. (originally and chiefly UK, sports, informal) In a position or having a score behind that of another competitor or an opponent; below an expected level in terms of some position, score, or target.

☞ The Canadian author Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi, about an Indian boy who is shipwrecked and stranded for 227 days on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger, was first published 25 years ago on 11 September 2001.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Word_of_the_day/2026/September_15