drifter
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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A swaggering drifter named Hal Carter arrives in town looking for work, and by sunset he has thrown the community, especially the fragile Madge Owens, into emotional turmoil.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026
To some, he was a rollicking drifter in ragamuffin punk tatters.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2023
It might have helped if Siff had a sturdier partner, but Alexander’s wan emo sensibility lacks the haunted charisma of a sexy drifter attempting to move on from his past.
From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
Fusing cinematic technique with investigative journalism and activism with art, Morris dissected the troubling case of Randall Dale Adams, a drifter who was charged with the 1976 murder of a Dallas police officer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2023
McCandless had tried to disguise the fact that he was a drifter living out of a backpack: He told his fellow employees that he lived across the river in Laughlin.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
In “Moby-Dick,” Herman Melville describes Nantucket as an “ant hill in the sea,” an isolated outpost for whalers and drifters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Juliette Lewis has played murderers, drifters, alcoholics, punk rockers, Reiki healers and roller-derby captains.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2025
Kristofferson turned that tale into the story of two drifters, who find love on the road and are separated, eventually, by death.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2024
It has become an oasis for the disaffected, the drifters and the curious who are trying to escape the cutthroat competition and suffocating political environment of China’s megacities.
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2024
As the drifters came along, being hounded out of town, Grandma g ave them a good feed and a beer to wet their whistles.
From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
