Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Drifter |
DrifterNoun1. A wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Building & Civil Engineering | An air-operated percussion-type drill, similar to a jackhammer, but so large that it requires mechanical mounting. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | A. An air-driven, percussive rock drill; also called leyner; liner b. A drill crewman, miner, or laborer who travels from place to place, only working a short period of time at each place. CF:boome c. A person skilled in the use of air-driven, percussive rock drills and other processes utilized in excavating horizontal underground passages or tunnels. (references) |
Occupations | Operates drill supported by upright column, to drill through rock in construction work, such as tunnels, highways, or dams: Fits bit in chuck of drifter (drill). Regulates valve to release compressed air that activates drill. Turns screw to feed drill into rock. Regulates flow of water to remove dust and debris from hole, or blows dust out of hole with compressed air. (references) |
| Tends drifting machine that removes scale from inner surfaces of pipe: Installs specified drift mandrel in machine, using handtools, and inserts pipe into head of machine. Moves controls to tighten pneumatic grip that holds pipe in position, and to move mandrel in and out of pipe to loosen scale. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: DrifterSynonyms: floater (n), vagrant (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Drifter |
| Specialty definitions using "drifter": bench cut ♦ ROCK-DRILL OPERATOR II. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Drifter" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Manx (drifter). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Look! A drifter, let's kill him! (Rat Race; writing credit: Andy Breckman) | |
Lyrics | Maybe I'm a drifter (Drowning; performing artist: Backstreet Boys) | |
Movie/TV Titles | High Plains Drifter (1972) The Drifter (1970) Song of the Drifter (1948) The Drifter (1944) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Drifter" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Drifter" is used about 43 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 43 | 52,181 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "drifter"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | زورق شباك, جوال (nomadic, roamer), شخص غير مستقر. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | скитник (bum, casual, derelict, erratic, floater, hobo, itinerant, knockabout, land-loper, land-louper, nomad, on the wallaby, roadster, roamer, rover, runabout, straggler, swagman, tramp, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer), непостоянен човек (quitter, rover, whiffler, wobbler), безцелен човек, дрифтер. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 漂泊 (wanderer), 漂流物. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | darmošlap (good for nothing, layabout), tulák (beachcomber, dosser, gadabout, hobo, itinerant, landloper, landraker, prowler, rambler, Ranger, rogue, rover, stroller, tramp, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer, wayfarer), rybářská loï, flákaè (Idler, lollard, slacker, slob, spiv). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | drivgarnsfiskerbaad, stoerre hammerbor. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | drifter, visserbot met drijfnet, horizontale boring (drift-borehole, flat hole, horizontal borehole, horizontal drilling), arbeider in de voorbereiding (stoneman). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | vasaraporakone, porausvasara. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | drifter, qui n'a pas de but dans la vie, qui manque de stabilité, perforation horizontale (drift-borehole, horizontal drilling), ouvrier de travaux preparatoires, marteau perforateur lourd, chalutier (dragger), bouveleur. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Bummler (dawdler, drifters, Idler, johnny, laggards, loafer, loafers, stroller, truant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | βαρεία αερόσφυρα, εξορύκτης (stoneman), άσκοπα περιφερόμενοσ, αλιευτικό με δίκτυα επιφανείας, οριζόντια διάτρηση (drift-borehole, flat hole, horizontal borehole, horizontal drilling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | בטלן (drone, good for nothing, idler, layabout, loafer, loiterer), סירת מכמורת, ו" (nomad, nomadic, tramp, vagabond, wanderer). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | magát elhagyó ember, halászcsónak. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | peschereccio con rete a strascico (trawler), martello perforatore pesante, incostante (capricious, changeable, erratic, fickle, fitful, giddy, inconstant, unprincipled, variable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | ドラ息子 (being pegged to the dollar, Dolby, Dolby surround, dolce, dolcissimo, Doline, doll, dollar, dollar clause, dollar peg, dollar shift, dollar shock, dollar shop, dollar usance, dolly, dolman sleeve, dolmen, dolphin kick, doria, Dorian, Dortmund, dream, dreamer, dreaming, dreamy, dribble, drill, drink, drip coffee, driven, durian, lazy son, profligate son). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ドリフター . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 돌이. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | shaghrynagh (abberant, absent, bewildering, devious, disjointed, errant, misleading, stray, strayer, truant, wandering), drifter. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ifterdray traineira (fishing boat, trawler), martelo perfurador pesado. (various references) бродяга (bum, derelict, dosser, drummer, gadabout, gadder, hobo, landloper, landlouper, maverick, nomad, prowler, rambler, rogue, runabout, runagate, stroller, sundowner, tramp, tramper, vagabond, vagrant). (various references) skitnica (bum, hobo, landloper, landlouper, larrikin, loafer, runagate, sundowner, tramp, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer). (various references) vagabundo (down and out, erring, gipsy, gypsy, outcast, piker, Ranger, rover, runagate, tramp, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer), trainera (trawler), soltero (bachelor, single, stag, unattached, unmarried), martillo perforador pesado. (various references) hammarborrmaskin, bergborrmaskin för ort-och tunneldrivning. (various references) trol balıkçı teknesi, serseri (adrift, beat, bum, bummer, dawdler, dosser, down and out, errant, flotsam, flotsam and jetsam, gadabout, good for nothing, hobo, hoodlum, hooligan, landloper, larrikin, layabout, lowlife, ne'er do well, ne'er-do-weel, never-do-well, no good, outcast, punk, rambler, rascal, reprobate, rogue, roguish, rounder, rover, runagate, stray, strayed, sundowner, swag man, tramp, vagabond, vagrant, varmint, wandering, yob), avare (dawdler, dosser, good-for-nothing, idle, idled, rover, straggler, straggling, straggly, strayed, stroller, vagabond, vagrant, wanderer, wandering, yob). (various references) дрифтер. (various references) thuyền đánh lưới trôi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "drifter": drifters. (additional references) | |
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"Drifter" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: draftex, drife, Drifte, drite, Dritte, Drotar, grifter. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "drifter" (pronounced dri"fter) |
| 4 | -i" f t er | lifter, shifter, swifter. |
| 3 | -f t er | after, drafter, Hefter, hereafter, laughter, rafter, shoplifter, softer, thereafter, weightlifter. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-f-i-r-r-t" | |
-1 letter: rifted. | |
-2 letters: direr, drier, drift, fetid, fired, firer, fried, frier, refit, rider, rifer, tired, tried, trier. | |
-3 letters: defi, deft, diet, dire, dirt, dite, edit, fire, fret, frit, ired, reft, reif, ride, rife, rift, rite, tide, tied, tier, tire, tref. | |
-4 letters: die, dit, eft, err, fed, fer, fet, fid, fie, fir, fit, ire, red, ref. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-f-i-r-r-t" | |
+1 letter: draftier, drifters, driftier. | |
+2 letters: frittered, terrified, torrefied, torrified. | |
+3 letters: breadfruit, fratricide, interfered, redrafting, refiltered, retrofired. | |
+4 letters: breadfruits, denitrifier, fraternized, fratricides, profiteered, recertified, refortified, retrofitted, trifurcated. | |
+5 letters: airfreighted, counterfired, denitrifiers, handicrafter, intergrafted, precertified, proliferated, refrigerated, transfigured, ultrarefined. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)44 72 69 66 74 65 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.. .-. .. ..-. - . .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000100 01110010 01101001 01100110 01110100 01100101 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)D r i f t e r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0044 0072 0069 0066 0074 0065 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)38847572867184 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Orthography | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
