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
Benji, something of a chatty drifter, has never quite found himself, at least not by David’s standards.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2024
This drifter comes in and says there is nothing wrong with this Asian family, and folks should resist groupthink.
From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2024
To some, he was a rollicking drifter in ragamuffin punk tatters.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 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
He welcomed her into his commune of misfits and drifters, which called itself the Family and coalesced at a ranch outside of Los Angeles, where she found herself captivated by his wild-eyed charisma.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2023
She began picturing solitary drifters displaced by climate disasters surviving harsh landscapes with the help of garments that doubled as shelters — the ultimate commodities in a post-consumption world.
From New York Times ● Sep. 30, 2022
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
