Purport vs Drift - What's the difference?

purport | drift | Synonyms |

Purport is a synonym of drift.

As verbs the difference between purport and drift

is that purport is to convey, imply, or profess outwardly (often falsely) while drift is drifting.

As a noun purport

is import, intention or purpose.

purport

English

Verb

(en verb)

To convey, imply, or profess outwardly (often falsely).

He purports himself to be an international man of affairs.

To intend.

He purported to become an international man of affairs.

Noun

(en noun)

import, intention or purpose

* 1748 ,

My practice, you say, refutes my doubts. But you mistake the purport of my question.

* 1843 , '', book 4, chapter I, ''Aristocracies

Sorrowful, phantasmal as this same Double Aristocracy of Teachers and Governors now looks, it is worth all men’s while to know that the purport of it is, and remains, noble and most real.

* 1939 ,

A child’s brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult’s act, and figuring out its purport .

(obsolete) disguise; covering

* Spenser

For she her sex under that strange purport / Did use to hide.

Anagrams

drift

English

Noun

(en noun)

(label) Movement; that which moves or is moved.

# (label) A driving; a violent movement.

#* 1332 , (King Alisaunder) (1332)

The dragon drew him [self] away with drift of his wings.

# Course or direction along which anything is driven; setting.

#* (Richard Hakluyt) (c.1552-1616)

Our drift was south.

# That which is driven, forced, or urged along.

#*{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)

, chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.

# Anything driven at random.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

Some loga useless drift .

# A mass of matter which has been driven or forced onward together in a body, or thrown together in a heap, etc., especially by wind or water.

#* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

Drifts of rising dust involve the sky.

#* Kane

We got the brig a good bed in the rushing drift [of ice].

# The distance through which a current flows in a given time.

# A drove or flock, as of cattle, sheep, birds.

#* (Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)

cattle coming over the bridge (with their great drift doing much damage to the high ways)

# A collection of loose earth and rocks, or boulders, which have been distributed over large portions of the earth's surface, especially in latitudes north of forty degrees, by the retreat of continental glaciers, such as that which buries former river valleys and creates young river valleys.

#* 1867 , E. Andrews, "Observations on the Glacial Drift beneath the bed of Lake Michigan," American Journal of Science and Arts? , vol. 43, nos. 127-129, page 75:

It is there seen that at a distance from the valleys of streams, the old glacial drift usually comes to the surface, and often rises into considerable eminences.

# Driftwood included in flotsam washed up onto the beach.

The act or motion of drifting; the force which impels or drives; an overpowering influence or impulse.

* (Robert South) (1634–1716)

A bad man, being under the drift of any passion, will follow the impulse of it till something interpose.

A place (a ford) along a river where the water is shallow enough to permit crossing to the opposite side.

The tendency of an act, argument, course of conduct, or the like; object aimed at or intended; intention; hence, also, import or meaning of a sentence or discourse; aim.

* 1977 , (w), (The Canterbury Tales) , Penguin Classics, p. 316:

'Besides, you lack the brains to catch my drift . / If I explained you wouldn't understand.'

* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

He has made the drift of the whole poem a compliment on his country in general.

* Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)

Now thou knowest my drift .

(architecture) The horizontal thrust or pressure of an arch or vault upon the abutments.

(Knight)

(label) A tool.

# A slightly tapered tool of steel for enlarging or shaping a hole in metal, by being forced or driven into or through it; a broach.

# A tool used in driving down compactly the composition contained in a rocket, or like firework.

A deviation from the line of fire, peculiar to oblong projectiles.

(label) A passage driven or cut between shaft and shaft; a driftway; a small subterranean gallery; an adit or tunnel.

(label) Movement.

# The angle which the line of a ship's motion makes with the meridian, in drifting.

# The distance to which a vessel is carried off from her desired course by the wind, currents, or other causes.

# The place in a deep-waisted vessel where the sheer is raised and the rail is cut off, and usually terminated with a scroll, or driftpiece.

# The distance between the two blocks of a tackle.

# The difference between the size of a bolt and the hole into which it is driven, or between the circumference of a hoop and that of the mast on which it is to be driven.

(label) A sideways movement of the ball through the air, when bowled by a spin bowler.

Derived terms

* driftage * driftal * drift-anchor * drift-bolt * drift-current * drift ice * driftland * driftless * drift-mining * drift-net * drift-sail * driftway * driftweed * driftwood * drifty

Verb

(en verb)

(label) To move slowly, especially pushed by currents of water, air, etc.

*, chapter=11

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=One day I was out in the barn and he drifted in. I was currying the horse and he set down on the wheelbarrow and begun to ask questions.}}

(label) To move haphazardly without any destination.

(label) To deviate gently from the intended direction of travel.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=January 15, author=Saj Chowdhury, work=BBC

, title= Man City 4-3 Wolves , passage=Midway through the half, Argentine Tevez did begin to drift inside in order to exert his influence but by this stage Mick McCarthy's side had gone 1-0 up and looked comfortable.}}

(label) To drive or carry, as currents do a floating body.

(label) To drive into heaps.

(label) To accumulate in heaps by the force of wind; to be driven into heaps.

To make a drift; to examine a vein or ledge for the purpose of ascertaining the presence of metals or ores; to follow a vein; to prospect.

To enlarge or shape, as a hole, with a drift.

To oversteer a vehicle, causing loss of traction, while maintaining control from entry to exit of a corner. See .

Derived terms

* bedrift * drift along * drift apart * drift off