"Driftage" is a word in ENGLISH
Deviation from a ship's course due to leeway.
Anything that drifts.
He did touch people's lives, the lives of strangers, in an entirely unanticipated way. It was they who really mourned him - or what they thought was him - with a grief that was no less sharp for not being intimate with its object.
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A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces his altitude and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts: "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"The man below says: "Yes, you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field.""You must work in Technical Support," says the balloonist."I do," replies the man. "How did you know?""Well" says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but completely useless."The man below says: "You must be in management.""I am," replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?""Well", says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're still in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault."
The voluntary and unnecessary departure of a ship from, or delay in, the regular and usual course of the specific …
Read the complete definitionTo decline or deviate from the line of the proper course; to turn aside; to swerve; as, a ship sheers …
Read the complete definitionTo steer wild, or out of the line of her course; to deviate from her course, as when struck by …
Read the complete definition