How to Use drift off in a Sentence

drift off

verb
  • Webster drifted off to sleep, full of hope.
    — Jamie Thompson, The Atlantic, 6 Jan. 2026
  • And their eyes keep drifting off camera.
    — Rebecca Knight, Harvard Business Review, 20 Nov. 2025
  • With our record, most people would try to drift off from each other.
    — Zack Rosenblatt, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Worn out by his night on the road, my father began drifting off.
    — Literary Hub, 23 Jan. 2026
  • The device will completely block the ear canal and cause a low buzzing noise that makes drifting off hard.
    — Liana Handler follow, Los Angeles Times, 11 June 2026
  • Some people have trouble producing enough melatonin to drift off in the first place.
    — Rowan Jacobsen, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
  • If a friend drifts off topic, steer gently toward the goal, and name a next step that each person can support.
    — Tarot.com, Sun Sentinel, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Then these pieces started to drift off in different directions.
    — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Ronson repeated the phrase before drifting off to sleep.
    — Marina Watts, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Her long platinum blond hair blew in the cool night air drifting off Lady Bird Lake.
    — Deborah Sengupta Stith, Austin American Statesman, 17 Mar. 2026
  • Even now, my only friend was drifting off in another direction.
    — Sam Lipsyte, New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2025
  • Šobat wasn’t supposed to relax enough to actually drift off, though.
    — Sean Williams, Outside, 27 Oct. 2025
  • One of the most relaxing parts of the day is burrowing under your blankets before drifting off to sleep.
    — Rylee Johnston, PEOPLE, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Guests instinctively understand where to sit, where to eat and where to drift off when the conversation winds down.
    — Kansas City Star, 1 May 2026
  • The driver drifted off the highway and struck the bridge pillar for unknown reasons, Baylark said.
    — Pj Green, Kansas City Star, 12 Dec. 2025
  • In 1965, Cochran's boat, a large schooner called the Rogue, was found drifting off the coast of Guatemala.
    — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 25 May 2026
  • Shaw, apparently, thought the inning was over and drifted off base, allowing Chapman to tag him out for a bizarre triple play.
    — Shayna Rubin, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Feb. 2026
  • Students also practice drop-wheel recovery, which simulates what happens when a vehicle's tires drift off the side of the road.
    — Cbs News Atlanta Digital Team, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026
  • After tucking her in, the 32-year-old mom continued her nightly routine, thinking that her youngest was drifting off to sleep.
    — Kayla Grant, PEOPLE, 26 Nov. 2025
  • Educators are split too, amused by the ingenuity, yet frustrated that students are still finding ways to drift off task during lessons.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Rather than drifting off on her own, Kurtsie started gravitating toward Bakari.
    — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Rue lies down on the couch and gives the bottle of painkillers a lingering look before listening to the audiobook version of the Bible and drifting off.
    — Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 1 June 2026
  • First responders found that an older model pickup truck that was towing a small utility trailer had drifted off the right side of the road, crashing into some trees.
    — Cecilio Padilla, CBS News, 28 Nov. 2025
  • Decisions drift off course without a traditional breach ever occurring.
    — Brian Contos, Forbes.com, 20 Feb. 2026
  • Deliberate mind wandering, where people give themselves the freedom to drift off-subject, allowing their thoughts to take a different course.
    — Liz Regalia, Parents, 28 Oct. 2025
  • Veering from Linkin Park–esque melodics to guttural screams, the first semi-final closer will certainly wake up anyone who’s drifted off.
    — Jon O'Brien, Vulture, 11 May 2026
  • Ohio State Highway Patrol says a westbound pickup truck drifted off the road to the right, hitting two telephone poles before ending up in someone’s yard.
    — Fox19 Staff, Cincinnati Enquirer, 24 Oct. 2025
  • The driver of the truck sped up before the attacks, and Koenig whooped with excitement after Bartell was killed and her car drifted off the road, testimony at trial revealed.
    — Shelly Bradbury, Denver Post, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Minutes later, as Jones prepared to leave the stadium — and, inevitably, to replay many of the wild game’s moments in his mind before drifting off to sleep — perspective finally seemed to arrive.
    — Michael Silver, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2025
  • In some instances, only some of the captives were able to escape; in others, the captives were unable to return to land because of their lack of navigational skills, and their ships were found drifting off the African coasts.
    — Literary Hub, 5 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'drift off.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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