-tə(r) noun
( -s )
1.
a. : a living being that travels or moves about aimlessly
there were about 40 in the family and usually a dozen drifters — W.D.Wyman
these drifters vary in size from the bacteria and the minute yellowish microscopic plants … to copepods — R.E.Coker
b. : a worker who moves from job to job without remaining long at any one place of employment
c. : a person of passive spiritless character lacking aim, ambition, and initiative and given to roving from one diversion to another without any steady interest : temporizer
d. : a fierce and driving snowstorm (as in the far north)
2.
a. also drifter·man -tə(r)mən plural driftermen : a person who fishes with a drift net — called also drift netter
b. : a boat equipped for and employed in drift-net fishing — called also drift boat
3.
a. : an excavator of mine drifts
b. : a rock drill used for driving mine drifts and crosscuts
c. : an operator of a heavy drill for drilling through rock in tunnel construction, mining, or quarrying