| 释义 |
drifter|ˈdrɪftə(r)|
[f. as prec. + -er1.]
a. gen. One who or that which drifts.
b. Mining. (a) A miner who excavates drifts (see drift n. 15); (b) a heavy, mounted percussion drill driven by compressed air, used in mining for horizontal working; also drifter drill.
1864Daily Tel. 16 Aug. The lead of rich pay dirt was lost for a short time, but..the drifters found it again. 1918R. Peele Mining Engin. Handbk. 1112 Drifters. 1921Engin. & Mining Jrnl. 27 Aug. 340/1 Modern rock-drilling appliances of the hammer type fall into three well-marked groups, namely, the drifter..; the plugger..; and the stoper. 1946G. J. Young Elem. Mining (ed. 4) xiv. 539 For work at the face 3½-in. drifter drills..are required. 1951S. Higham Introd. Metalliferous Mining vii. 88 When rapid advance is desired, rigged drifters are used.
c. A boat or man engaged in fishing with a drift-net. Also, a fishing-vessel or other small boat used by the Royal Navy, esp. in wartime, for patrolling, conveying stores, etc.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 79 Model of Drifter for Herring Fisheries. 1887Daily News 27 Sept. 4/6 The proposal..that trawlers should fish only in the daytime, and drifters only during the nighttime. 1916In Northern Mists xxiv. 97 Like all these North Sea craft, trawlers, drifters, and the rest, she is built with bows nearly twice as high out of the water as the after-part. 1917Times 19 May 6/4 Light cruisers..raided the Allied drifter line in the Adriatic and succeeded in sinking 14 British drifters. 1923Man. Seamanship II. 19 In home waters capital ships are generally supplied with a drifter. 1961Granville & Kelly Inshore Heroes x. 108 In addition to H.M.S. Midge, the Coastal Forces' base, to which the M.L.s were attached, there was the base for trawlers, drifters, armed yachts and other auxiliary craft employed on anti-submarine or mine-clearance work.
d. An object which is allowed to float freely in the sea to determine ocean-currents; a drift-bottle.
1897T. W. Fulton in Scot. Geogr. Mag. XIII. 637 Surface currents of the North Sea..Drifters..were used, one-ounce wide-mouthed bottles. 1900Geogr. Jrnl. XV. 275 On the voyage from Iceland to Jan Mayen in 1896 twenty drifters were thrown overboard.
e. A man following an aimless, irresolute, or vagrant way of life.
1908Daily Chron. 28 Sept. 4/7 The drifter drifts to California, and brings up there because..he can drift no further. 1922Short Stories Feb. 25/1 The trampers ain't all hoboes, some of 'em being just drifters. 1925W. Deeping Sorrell & Son xxviii. 275 For months he had had a sense of drifting, and his character was not that of a drifter. 1971Guardian 14 June 9/1 A drifter with nothing but the clothes he stands up in.
f. A wind causing snow to drift.
1922R. J. Flaherty My Eskimo Friends 8 Then came snow, the winter's first big ‘drifter’, and for three days there was no land or sea or sky. 1924A. J. Small Frozen Gold ii. 49 A confused..blur of whining blizzards, roaring drifters, flat calm cold-snaps. 1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 19/8 Winds ranging from a drifter to 15 knots. |