drift, noun

/drɪft/
Forms:
Also (rarely) drif.
Origin:
South African Dutch, DutchShow more South African Dutch, from Dutch drift point at which one can wade through a stream.
1.
a. A shallow point in a river where it may be safely crossed; a ford; now usually a causeway, constructed where a river crosses a road. Also with qualifying word, wagon drift (obsolete).
1786 [see sense b below].
1795 C.R. Hopson tr. of C.P. Thunberg’s Trav. II. p.xiiA Drift is that part of a river, where the water is shallowest, and, consequently, where it can be crossed in a carriage.
1826 G. Barker Journal. 7 Dec.When crossing the Keiskama at a very bad drift, I slipped off a large stone into the river, nearly lost my hat with the stream.
1837 J.M. Bowker Speeches & Sel. (1864) 54Twenty-five oxen and eight cows..have been stolen this week; the spoor was traced close past Trompeter’s Drift Post, and through the upper waggon drift.
1843 Cape of G.H. Almanac & Annual Register 451This river (sc. the Orange)..is easily forded, the water at the usual drift, being shallow, and the banks of the river presenting an easy slope to the water’s edge.
1850 R.G.G. Cumming Hunter’s Life II. 284We held thither at a sharp trot, holding for the old waggon drift to avoid having to pass through dense reeds.
1853 F.P. Fleming Kaffraria 46Where the road crosses a river, what is called a drift is made — which is done by clearing the bed of the river of large stones, and cutting a sloping roadway through the banks on either side.
a1858 J. Goldswain Chron. (1946) I. 73They all went out and saw they Kaffer coming up they Wagon drift close to the House.
1863 Lady Duff-Gordon in F. Galton Vacation Tourists (1864) III. 194On we went, straight along the valley, crossing drift after drift; — a drift is the bed of a stream more or less dry; in which sometimes you are drowned, sometimes only pounded, as was our hap.
1899 D.S.F.A. Phillips S. Afr. Recollections 60On most of the South African rivers there are certain places called ‘drifts’ (fords), which can be crossed by waggons. In cases where that is impossible there are ponts or bridges.
1936 E. Rosenthal Old-Time Survivals 9You can find wagons outspanned for the sultry hours of the day near river banks, or waiting to be taken across ‘drifts’ or fords by pont, which is the South African word for pontoon.
1953 U. Krige Dream & Desert 185Against the ridge above the drif he conducted the service.
1974 E. Prov. Herald 6 Sept. 6Farmers..were able to cross low level bridges and drifts late on Wednesday for the first time since the rains.
1986 Motorist 3rd Quarter 29The rains regularly washed away the drifts over the stream and a section of the road on either side of them.
1994 M. Roberts tr. of J.A. Wahlberg’s Trav. Jrnls 1838–56 58The drift goes pretty obliquely through the stream, and is full of boulders.
b. Frequently with initial capital. As an element in place names: see quotations.
1786 G. Forster tr. of A. Sparrman’s Voy. to Cape of G.H. II. 20We arrived at Zondags-rivier’s drift.
1835 J.W.D. Moodie Ten Yrs in S. Afr. II. 131We pursued our journey along a high, level tract of country, towards ‘Jagers Drift’ or Hunter’s Ford.
1914 C. Pettman Notes on S. Afr. Place Names 30The huge saurian, the crocodile, has its Crocodile River and Crocodile Drift.
1972 Evening Post 11 Mar. 2The Addo Drift is often impassable. A causeway is to be constructed.
2. Always in the plural (usually with initial capital) in the Special Combinations Drifts crisis, Drifts question in historical contexts, the closure in 1895 of the fords on the Vaal river by president Paul Kruger of the South African Republic, as a result of a rail tariff dispute; the political consequences of this closure.
1928 E.A. Walker Hist. of S. Afr. 453During the Drifts crisis four of the Johannesburg Reformers..had arranged with him (sc. Cecil Rhodes) that Jameson should come in from the western border.
1968 E.A. Walker Hist. of Sn Afr. 449While the Drifts crisis was..rising to its climax, Chamberlain settled the fate of the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
1917 Bleloch & O’Flaherty 1000 Million Pounds 108Kruger had shrunk from a war on the Drifts Question prepared for him by the German control of the Railway Company.
1933 W.H.S. Bell Bygone Days 183In the latter part of 1895 there had very nearly been a war with the Cape Colony over the ‘drifts’ question.
A shallow point in a river where it may be safely crossed; a ford; now usually a causeway, constructed where a river crosses a road. Also with qualifying word, wagon drift (obsolete).
Frequently with initial capital.see quotations.
Always in the plural (usually with initial capital) in the Special Combinations Drifts crisis, Drifts question in historical contexts,the closure in 1895 of the fords on the Vaal river by president Paul Kruger of the South African Republic, as a result of a rail tariff dispute; the political consequences of this closure.
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drievoet, nounn. & adjectiveadj.drift-sand, nounn.
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