adrift

Universal Words adjective [notbeforenoun] 1 if a boat or a person in a boat is adrift, the boat is not tied to anything or is floating without being controlled by anyone: The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 2 (BrE) (of a person) feeling alone and without a direction or an aim in life: young people adrift in the big city 3 no longer attached or fixed in the right position: I nearly suffocated when the pipe on my breathing apparatus came adrift. * (figurative) She had been cut adrift from everything she had known. * (figurative) Our plans had gone badly adrift. 4 ~ (of sb/sth) (BrE) (in sport) behind the score or position of your opponents: The team are now just six points adrift of the leaders. IDIOMS cast / set sb adrift (usually passive) to leave sb to be carried away on a boat that is not being controlled by anyone: (figurative) Without language human beings are cast adrift.