to drift away
15
4.5
- phrasal verb
- /drɪft əˈweɪ/
:
alejarse (de)
- As our lives became busier, I noticed that we had begun to drift away from each other.
The big reason that people drift away from their families is 'cause they're just just lazy.
- The big reason that people drift away from their families is 'cause they're just just lazy.
- Broke, broke with FEMA, so maybe that I drifted away from boxing, but then I kept drifting back into it.
- Or you're a pro skateboarder and you kind of drift away from, from the essence of what makes us feel connected.
- What if we decided to take all the parts of healthcare that have drifted away from us and stand firm and say no, these things are ours.
- And, and I did sort of feel myself kind of drifting away from, from the liberal tribe, as it were.
Examples
-
I can see the two of them... drifting away from me... and I just stand watching.
-
How can I deal with friends that are drifting away from me?
-
But it seems the guys just drift away in their little social world, as it were, much, much earlier than than the women do.
-
Is it that easy for you to just drift away?
-
Some old friends may have drifted away, and new friends may be more understanding.
Academic text (1997) -
The others, they got bored and drifted away.
-
At the same time, more and more people are drifting away from organized religion.
Academic text (2011) -
The crowd starts to drift away, leaving Elliot behind in his usual place at the usual time.
Fiction book (1992) -
And oftentimes people one by one by one start drifting away and even family unfortunately starts to drift away.
-
Eva and I stand in the doorway to Aunt Flo's kitchen, and the others drift away from us.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
466
2.8
To stop taking part in a place or activity
86
3.5
To move away from people or a place to create space
69
3.0
To become weaker and then disappear over time
17
3.7
To become less close to each other over time
3
6.7
To stop being involved with a person, group, or idea
1
5.6
To move back slowly, like water leaving a shore
Antonyms
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to gradually lose contact or closeness' follows directly from combining 'drift' (to move slowly) with 'away' (to move apart or disappear); the meaning is a straightforward extension of physical separation to relational separation. This motion + away composition is common cross-linguistically and would be readily inferable by a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
The expression drift away may come from the image of two small boats tied together on calm water. If the rope becomes loose they slowly drift away from each other, so the phrase now means 'to slowly lose contact or closeness' with someone.