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Do you catch my drift

The earliest quotation in the Oxford English Dictionary for this sense of "drift" is dated 1526: "Harde it is . . . to perceyue the processe and dryfte of this treatyse."
Found on "Phrases dot org"

The speaker may be having trouble communicating with their audience and not knowing how to better explain.

This is similar to "do you feel me?" or "do you get it?".

Otherwise there is a certain mentality and a certain consciousness along with what the speaker & the audience are generally known to understand.
Bugsy says to his cohorts in crime "I took care of it. Do you catch my drift?".
by Hare Krsna Gardening December 26, 2022
mugGet the Do you catch my driftmug.
.9.Ima Drift Around Her Curves Then See Her Soon, She Wants To Know My Name, Thought She Knew The Truth, Eating Sunflower Seeds, That Is New York In June, Pierced White Gold Attachments For Leisure Based Tombs.9.
.9.Ima Drift Around Her Curves Then See Her Soon, She Wants To Know My Name, Thought She Knew The Truth, Eating Sunflower Seeds, That Is New York In June, Pierced White Gold Attachments For Leisure Based Tombs.9.
mugGet the .9.Ima Drift Around Her Curves Then See Her Soon, She Wants To Know My Name, Thought She Knew The Truth, Eating Sunflower Seeds, That Is New York In June, Pierced White Gold Attachments For Leisure Based Tombs.9.mug.

drift

Stop ruining my drift
That's just the drift of it
by 4amcoochie March 19, 2020
mugGet the driftmug.

drift

When the back tires of your car skid while still moving forward. Ways to do this are pulling the handbrake and sometimes shifting to a lower gear. Usually do this in rear wheel drive car with the back tire psi very high, and sometimes lower suspension. This leaves skid marks and you can get fined for doing this on roads and public places like parking lots. This can also be refered to as understeer
We went drifting in the parking lot by our house yesterday
by Porsche Pica tell 67 April 10, 2017
mugGet the driftmug.

drifting

when a couple distances but doesn’t break up. just gives space.
wow she’s drifting from me. i wonder what i did
by randomf March 10, 2023
mugGet the driftingmug.

Thread-Drift

The inevitable descent of a focused AI conversation into glorious chaos, usually within 3–7 messages. What begins as a simple request ("Help me fix this bug") ends up unpacking childhood trauma, debating metaphysics, and designing a solar-powered rum distillery on Mars.

It’s not a bug—it’s a FEATURE.

Origin:
Born from the trenches of multi-topic AI sessions where attention spans go to die. Coined by users who realized they’re not multitasking—they’re multi-existential spiraling.

Related Terms:
* Context Collapse – When multiple topics blur into a singularity of semantic soup.
* Prompt Creep – When your “one quick question” becomes a doctoral thesis.
* AI Tangent Velocity (ATV) – The speed at which a conversation fucks off into nowhere.

Pro Tips:
* Embrace it. Let the drift take you.
* Rename your chat threads before you forget what the hell happened.
* Use it as fuel for your next sci-fi short story or therapy session.
I asked ChatGPT to format a SQL query, and now we’re discussing whether time is a construct of perception. Classic thread-drift.
by segfahlt April 30, 2025
mugGet the Thread-Driftmug.

Process drift

The gradual, often unconscious shift in a work process, system, or organizational behavior away from its original purpose—usually due to routine, habit, or the illusion of progress. Common in corporate, bureaucratic, or tech settings where the system just keeps running… because that’s what it does.
“Why are we still sending daily update emails no one reads?”
“No clue. Classic case of process drift
by Richard A April 25, 2025
mugGet the Process driftmug.

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