driddle 
driddle (drid'l), r. i.; pret. and pp. driddled, 
ppr. driddling. [Se.. also written druttle, dru- 
tle ; origin obscure.] 1. To play unskilfully, 
as on the violin. 
A pigmy scraper wf his fiddle, 
Wha us'd at trysts and fairs to driddle. 
Burns, Jolly Beggars. 
2. To wander aimlessly or feebly from place 
to place. 3. To work constantly without mak- 
ing much progress. 
drie : t, An obsolete spelling of dry. 
drie 2 , ". t. A Scotch spelling of dree 1 . 
Would'st thou thy every future year 
In ceaseless prayer ami penance drie, 
Yet wait thy latter end with fear 
Then, daring warrior, follow me ! 
Scott, i. of L. M., ii. 6. 
drier (dri'er), . [< dry + -er 1 .'] One who or 
that which dries or is used in drying. Specifi- 
cally (a) A machine or mechanical contrivance or appa- 
ratus used in removing moisture from some substance : as, 
a fruit-drier; a clothes-drier; a grain-drier. (6) Any sub- 
stance added to a paint to increase its drying quality. It 
may be a liquid, such as japan, or a dry material, as oxid 
of lead, oxid of manganese, burnt umber, or sugar of 
lead. Also spelled dryer. Centrifugal drier, a ma- 
chine in which rotary motion is the direct means of ex- 
tracting moisture. It consists of two circular tubs of 
metal placed one within the other, the smaller one being 
pierced with many small holes and revolving on its axis. 
On placing sugar, wet fabrics, etc. , within the interior ves- 
sel and setting it in rapid motion, the water is expelled 
by centrifugal force. See evaporator aud lumber-drier. 
drier, driest (dri'er, dri'est). Comparative and 
superlative degrees of dry. 
drifet, " A Middle English form of drive. 
drift (drift), n. [< ME. drift, dryft, act of driv- 
ing, a drove, shower of rain or snow, impulse 
(not in AS. ; = OFries. "drift (in comp. wr-drift) 
= D. drift, a drove, flock, course, current, ar- 
dor, = MLG. drift = MHG. trift, a drove, herd, 
pasture, drift (of wood, etc.), activity, = Icel. 
drift, dript, a snow-drift, = Sw. drift, impulse, 
instinct, = Dan. drift, instinct, inclination, 
drove, (naut.) drift, leeway) ; with formative -1, 
< AS. drifan, pp. drifen, drive: see drive.'] 1. 
A driving; a force impelling or urging for- 
ward; impulse; hence, figuratively, overbear- 
ing power or influence. 
The ffolke was so ferd, that on flete were, 
All drede for to drowne with dryft of the se ; 
And in perell were put all the proude kynges. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 4635. 
The dragoun dreew him awaie with drift of his winges. 
Alisaunder of Macedoine (E. E. T. S.), 1. 998. 
A bad ma_n, being under the drift of any passion, will still 
follow the impulse of it till something interposes. 
South, Sermons. 
There is a kind of undertow in that rich baritone of his 
that sweeps our minds from their foothold into deeper 
waters with a drift we cannot and would not resist. 
Lowell, Study Windows, p. 383. 
2. Anything driven; especially, an assemblage 
or a number of things or animals driven, or im- 
pelled by any kind of force : as, a drift of trees 
in a torrent ; a drift of cattle (a drove) ; a drift 
of bullets. 
Anton Shiel, he loves not me, 
For I gat twa drifts of his sheep. 
Hobie Noble (Child's Ballads, VI. 100). 
A dryft of tame swine. 
Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 80. 
We saw a great drift ; so we heaved out our skiff, and 
it proved a fir log, which seemed to have been many years 
in the water. Winthrop, Hist. New England, I. 20. 
Drifta of rising dust involve the sky. Dryden. 
Beyond the lodge the city lies, 
Beneath its drift of smoke. 
Tennyson, Talking Oak. 
Hence 3. A heap of any matter driven to- 
gether: as, a drift of snow, or a snow-drift; & 
drift of sand. 
A smooth white mound the brush-pile showed, 
A fenceless drift what once was road. 
Whittier, Snow-Bound. 
4. Course of anything; tendency; aim; inten- 
tion : as, the drift of reasoning or argument ; 
the drift of a discourse. 
And then he taketh him al to the deuises of his worldly 
counsailers, and . . . maketh many wise waies as he 
weneth, and al turne at length vnto foly, and one subtil 
drift driueth an other to naught. 
Sir T. More, Cumfort against Tribulation (1573), fol. 41. 
These Furies: who with fell despight . . . pursue (in- 
censed) 
Their damned drifts in Adam first commenced. 
Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 1. 
Hovers betwixt two factions, and explores 
The drifts of both. 
B. Jonxon, Cynthia's Kevels, Hi. 2. 
He threw in some . . . commonplace morality to con- 
ceal his real drift. Lowell, Study Windows, p. 416. 
6. In geol., loose detrital material, fragments 
of rock, boulders, sand, gravel, or clay, or a 
1770 
mixture of two or more of these deposits, rest- 
ing on the surface of the bed-rock. The term drift 
was introduced by Lyell in 1840, to take the place of dilu- 
vium, with which latter word the idea of a universal del- 
uge, and especially the Noachian deluge, had been gener- 
ally associated. (See diluvium.) The word drift is now 
usually applied to detrital deposits when it is intended to 
include at the same time the transportation from a dis- 
tance. Almost all detrital material has, however, been 
formed with more or less help from running water, and 
therefore must in that process have been moved to a 
greater or less distance from the place of its origin. It is 
especially with reference to material lying on the surface 
in northern Europe and northeastern North America that 
the term drift is used at present by geologists, and it is 
frequently called northern drift, since much of it has been 
moved in a'southerly direction. And since ice is believed 
by most geologists to have been the principal agent by 
which this drift was moved, it is also denominated glacial 
drift, while the detrital material transported by the agency 
of ice at the present time is not so called. See glacier 
and moraine. 
6. In mining, a nearly horizontal excavation 
made in opening or working a mine : nearly the 
synonym of level. The levels or drifts are the nearly 
horizontal openings in a mine ; the shafts are the nearly 
vertical openings by which the levels are connected and 
made accessible. (See level and adit.) A drift is wholly 
within the soil or rock; an open cut is open to the sky. 
Also driftway. 
7. Naut., the leeway which a vessel makes when 
lying to or hove to during a gale. Also driftway. 
8. In ship-building, the difference between 
the size of a bolt and the hole into which it is 
to be driven, or between the circumference of 
a hoop and the circumference of the mast on 
which it is to be driven. 9. The horizontal 
oversetting force or pressure outward exerted 
by an arch on the piers on which it rests. 10. 
Slow movement of a galvanometer-needle, gen- 
erally due to changes in the torsional elasticity 
of the suspending fiber. 11. In meek., a long- 
ish round and slightly tapering piece of steel 
used for enlarging a hole in a metallic plate ; a 
drift-bolt ; a punch. It sometimes has grooves 
cut in spirals on the sides, to give it cutting 
edges. Also called driver. 12. Milit.: (a) A 
tool used in ramming down the composition 
contained in a rocket or similar firework, (b) 
A priming-iron to clean the vent of a piece of 
ordnance from burning particles after each dis- 
charge. [Eng.] (c) In gun., same as deriva- 
tion, 6. 13. A green lane. N. and Q., 7th ser., 
V. 302. [Prov. Eng.] 14. Delay; procrasti- 
nation. [Scotch.] 
Trouble uppon trouble is the matter and exercise of pa- 
tience, lang drift and delay of thinges hoped for is the ex- 
ercise of true patience. S. Bruce, Eleven Sermons. 
15. [D. drift, a course, current, a passing.] In 
South Africa, a ford. 16. The distance tra- 
versed in making a single haul of a dredge. 
Drift epoch. See niacial epoch, under glacial. Drift of 
a current, the rate at which it flows. Drift of the 
forest, in Eng. law, a driving together of the cattle that 
are in a forest, in order to ascertain their condition and 
status, as to ownership, commonableness, etc. ; a kind of 
" round-up." Drifts in the sheer draft. See drafti. 
Glacial drift. See above, 5, and glacial Northern 
drift, in geol., a name given to boulder-clay of the Pleis- 
tocene period, when its materials were supposed to have 
been brought by polar currents from the north. See 
above, 6. Road-drift, the materials scraped from a 
road, as in repairing it. 
drift (drift), v. [< drift, .] I. intrans. 1. To 
float or be driven along by a current of water 
or air; be earned at random by the force of 
the wind or tide ; hence, figuratively, to be car- 
ried as if by accident or involuntarily into a 
course of action or state of circumstances. 
We drifted o'er the harbour bar. 
Coleridge, Ancient Mariner, vi. 
Half the night 
Buoy'd upon floating tackle and broken spars, 
These drifted, stranding on an isle at morn. 
Tennyson, Enoch Arden. 
After 1860 he [Tilden] drifted into New York State poli- 
tics. Encyc. frit., XXIII. 387. 
2. To accumulate in heaps by the force of 
wind; be driven into heaps. 
The nightwind smooths with drifting sand 
Our track. Whittier, At Port Royal. 
3. In mining, to run a drift. See drift, n., 6. 
II. trans. 1. To drive into heaps: as, a cur- 
rent of wind drifts snow or sand. 2. To cover 
with drifts or driftage. 
The sides of the road were drifted with heaps of wild 
hawthorn and honeysuckle in full bloom. 
Lowell, Fireside Travels, p. 240. 
The roads were drifted to such an extent that even the 
ploughs could not be passed through in many places. 
B. Taylor, Northern Travel, p. 187. 
3. To excavate horizontally or in a horizontal 
direction; drive. Shafts are sunk; levels or 
drifts are driven or drifted. 
drill 
There is for every soil a limit in depth beyond which it 
becomes more expedient to drift the required way, and 
construct a vaulted tunnel of sufficient dimensions, than 
to make an open cutting with the requisite slopes. 
Encyc. Brit., IV. 448. 
4. To delay ; put off. Jamieson. [Scotch.] 
The Lord, suppose hee drifted and delayed the effect of 
his prayer, . . . yit he heareth him. 
It. Bruce, Eleven Sermons. 
driftage (drif'taj), n. [< drift + -age.] 1. 
That which is drifted; drift. 2. Naut., the 
amount of deviation from a ship's course due 
to leeway. 3. In gun. and archery, windage. 
drift-anchor (drift'ang"kor), n. Same as sea- 
anchor. 
drift-bolt (drift'bolt), n. A bolt, commonly 
made of steel, used for driving out other bolts. 
drift-current (drift'kur'ent), n. A current 
produced by the force of the wind. 
A current thus directly impelled by wind is termed a 
drift-current. Encyc. Brit., III. 19. 
drift-ice (drift'is), n. [Cf. Sw. drifts = Dan. 
driv-is.] Masses of detached floating ice which 
drift with the wind or ocean currents, as in the 
polar seas. 
drift-land (drift'land), . In old Eng, law, a 
tribute paid yearly by some tenants, to the 
king or a landlord, for the privilege of driving 
cattle through a manor on the way to fairs or 
market. 
driftless (drift'les), a. [<drift + -less.~\ 1. With- 
out drift or aim ; purposeless ; aimless. North 
British Rev. 2. Free from drift or driftage. 
Whitney describes the surface of the rock within the 
driftlet region as being uneven and irregular. 
Geikie, Ice Age, p. 500. 
drift-mining (drift'mi"ning), n. A term used 
in various gold regions to denote that kind of 
mining which is carried on by following, by 
means of drifts or levels, the detrital material 
in the channels of former rivers, now obliter- 
ated and covered with volcanic and other ac- 
cumulations. 
drift-net (drift'net), n. A gill-net supported 
upright in the water by floats and distended by 
means of weights below. 
drift-netter (drift'net"er), n. A fisherman who 
uses a drift- or gill-net. 
drift-sail (drift'sal), n. Naut., a sail attached 
to a hawser, thrown overboard and veered ahead 
so as to act as a drag and keep the ship's head 
to the sea in heavy weather. 
driftway (drift' wa), . 1. A road over which 
cattle are driven. 
The horse-passengerway became in lapse of time a drift- 
way. Contemporary Rev., L. 376. 
2. Naut. and in mining, same as drift. 
driftweed (drift'wed). n. 1. Same as gulf- 
treed. 2. In England, the tangle, Laminaria 
digitata, especially cylindrical portions of the 
frond. 
driftwood (drift'wud), n. Wood drifted or 
floated by water. 
drifty (drif'ti), a. Forming or characterized 
by drifts, especially of snow. 
Drifty nights an' dripping summers. Hogg. 
drightt, . [ME., also drigt, earlier drihten, < 
AS. drihten, dryhten, a ruler, lord, prince, esp. 
the Lord (= OS. drohtin = OFries. drochten = 
OHG. truhtin, trohtin, trehtin, MHG. truhten, 
troitten, trehten = Icel. drottinn = OSw. drotin, 
droten, Sw. drott = Dan. drot (Goth, not re- 
corded), a ruler, lord), < driht, dryht, also ge- 
driht, gedrylit, ME. drihte (= OS. druht, in 
comp., = OFries. dracht, drecht = OHG. *tritht, 
MHG. truht, trucht = Icel. drott), a host, com- 
pany, retinue, following, people (of. Goth ga- 
draithts, a soldier; cf. drauhtinon, serve as a 
soldier, drauhtinassus, military service), < dreo- 
gan, bear, endure (= Goth, driugan, serve as a 
soldier) : see dree 1 , and cf. drossard.'] A lord; 
a chief; in a particular sense, the Lord. 
Me thinkth bi thine crois Ijate [shining), 
That thu longest to ure drigte. 
King Uorn (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1310. 
Which dereworthe dright desires mee too haue? 
Alisaunder of Macedoine (E. E. T. S.), 1. 692. 
drigie (drij'i), . Same as dirgie. 
drill 1 (dril), v. [The meanings of drill are more 
or less involved with those of trill, making their 
separation, in history and definition, a matter 
of some uncertainty. Drill 1 , < D. drillen, bore, 
turn round, whirl, wheel, shake, brandish, ex- 
ercise in the management of arms, train, = 
LG. drillen, bore, also vex, tease, tire with im- 
portunities, 'bore,'= MHG. dreUeti,twru round, 
G. drillen, bore, train, also tire, 'bore,' = Dan. 
