drifter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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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
This drifter comes in and says there is nothing wrong with this Asian family, and folks should resist groupthink.
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2024
To some, he was a rollicking drifter in ragamuffin punk tatters.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2023
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
Made him feel worse than I did watching poor Trevor leveling the floor like some drifter slaving for a night’s rest in a bed.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
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
He welcomed her into his commune of misfits and drifters, which called itself the Family and coalesced at a ranch outside of Los Angeles, where she found herself captivated by his wild-eyed charisma.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2023
Rail stations, open-air markets, and back alleys in major towns became crowded with starving drifters.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
