Overdrift
adj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An act of overdrifting. countable, uncountable
"Four horses with a drag accomplished in one day the moving of 75 feet of this extreme in-shore end of the stone-work, and its distribution in the place mentioned proving sufficient to raise the low place to a height to insure the stoppage of any further sand overdrift for the present."
- 2 Material that has drifted over something. countable, uncountable
"Soul of mine Drink in their matchless aspect as they lift Their circling range, obscured by overdrift Of cloud, or stand out sharply, line on line Of august shapes, upon whose foreheads shine The dawn's bright earnest and the late last Gift Of day, the brief empurpled gleams that shift Through netted vapors at the sun's decline."
- 1 To drift on top of.
"Green be those downs and dells above the sea, Smooth-green for ever, by the plough unhurt, Nor overdrifted by their neighbouring sands, Where first I saw you ;"
- 2 To drift too far.
"Accordingly, there is the tendency of the power stroke to overdrift the cessation of the travel signal."
- 1 Having gearing that turns the millstone by means of a pole that rises above it. not-comparable
"The overdrift method in smock mills may be seen at Punnetts Town, and the underdrift at Shipley."
Example
More examples"The overdrift method in smock mills may be seen at Punnetts Town, and the underdrift at Shipley."
Etymology
From over- + drift.
More for "overdrift"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.