Definition of "drift" []

• To be carried along by currents of air or water: a balloon drifting eastward; as the wreckage drifted toward shore. (verb-intransitive)
• To proceed or move unhurriedly and smoothly: drifting among the party guests. (verb-intransitive)
• To move leisurely or sporadically from place to place, especially without purpose or regular employment: a day laborer, drifting from town to town. (verb-intransitive)
• To wander from a set course or point of attention; stray. (verb-intransitive)
• To vary from or oscillate randomly about a fixed setting, position, or mode of operation. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A big part of the policy story is what we call "drift" - the deliberate failure to update policies to reflect changing economic realities despite viable and popular alternatives due to the pressure of those benefiting from such calculated inaction."
• "The old and discredited neo-conservatives like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton and Jeb Bush sought to link domestic controversies surrounding the Clinton administration to what they described as a drift in American foreign and defense policy."
• "I have dived myself there in the Netherland Antilles, and we did what you call drift diving, where it carries you along, the water does, because there ` s a very heavy current."