adrifts, something of; as far as in it lies
and turned him adrift. something of ₁ a being, driven; a heap, of matter ₂ now this way, now that, now with these parts, now those ₃ as far as in it lies ₄ to remember the difference between the inside and the outside. ₅ tonality (others called it a cutting adrift). Something of the same kind ₆
—
sources, in brief
1 James William Jackson, “The Other Man’s Interests,” taken from Young People and found in The Canadian (“Published to Teach Printing to Some Pupils of the Ontario School for the Deaf, Belleville”) 37:8 (Belleville, January 15, 1930) : 1, 8 2 drift (n.), from etymonline — “A being driven,” hence “anything driven,” especially a number of things or a heap of matter driven or moving together (mid-15c.). [ But ] Figurative sense of “aim, intention, what one is getting at" (on the notion of “course, tendency”) is from 1520s. 3 Richard Manning, “Spinoza’s Physical Theory,” section 5.3 “Individuation by Essence,” in SEP (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 4 Spinoza’s Ethics, translated by George Eliot (1856); edited by Clare Carlisle (2020) : 169 5 Joseph Kerman, with Vivian Kerman, Listen (Third edition, 1980) : 458 6 Lydialyle Gibson, “How Do Single-Celled Organisms Learn and Remember? A Harvard neuroscientist’s quest to model memory,” in Harvard Magazine (September-October 2025)
—
details, detours at asfaltics 2922