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Definitions

drifter

[drif-ter] / ˈdrɪf tər /


Example Sentences

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The tag was also, incidentally, a play on “The Blue Dahlia,” a 1946 movie written by Raymond Chandler and starring Veronica Lake as a plucky drifter who helps the hero track down his wife’s murderer.

From The Wall Street Journal Jan. 23, 2026

“A man makes his choices,” Baldwin’s crusty, guilt-ridden drifter says to his grandkid at one point.

From Los Angeles Times May 2, 2025

An unearthed archive of an art lover's interviews with an ageing LS Lowry have revealed he saw himself as "a drifter" who knew a lot of people but "never had a girl".

From BBC Jun. 6, 2024

It might have helped if Siff had a sturdier partner, but Alexander’s wan emo sensibility lacks the haunted charisma of a sexy drifter attempting to move on from his past.

From New York Times Jul. 18, 2023

McCandless had tried to disguise the fact that he was a drifter living out of a backpack: He told his fellow employees that he lived across the river in Laughlin.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

Bunney described jellyfish as weak swimmers or "passive drifters" which rely on ocean currents to carry them.

From BBC Jul. 28, 2026

In “Moby-Dick,” Herman Melville describes Nantucket as an “ant hill in the sea,” an isolated outpost for whalers and drifters.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 20, 2026

Juliette Lewis has played murderers, drifters, alcoholics, punk rockers, Reiki healers and roller-derby captains.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 23, 2025

In San Antonio and Butte and Cheyenne and Reliance they would meet miners, rodeo hands, slaughterhouse workers, bartenders, drifters, janitors and motel maids.

From New York Times Apr. 25, 2023

The drifters had wolfed down the last morsel.

From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck




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