concise and full of meaning; "welcomed her pithy comments"; "the peculiarly sardonic and sententious style in which Don Luis composed his epigrams"- Hervey Allen
having once lived or existed or taken place in the real world as distinct from being legendary; "the historical Jesus"; "doubt that a historical Camelot every existed"; "actual historical events"
of or relating to the study of history; "historical scholars"; "a historical perspective"
(used informally especially for emphasis); "a real honest-to-god live cowboy"; "had us a high old time"; "went upriver to look at a sure-enough fish wheel"
to the greatest extent; completely; "you're quite right"; "she was quite alone"; "was quite mistaken"; "quite the opposite"; "not quite finished"; "did not quite make it"
to a degree (not used with a negative); "quite tasty"; "quite soon"; "quite ill"; "quite rich"
of an unusually noticeable or exceptional or remarkable kind (not used with a negative); "her victory was quite something"; "she's quite a girl"; "quite a film"; "quite a walk"; "we've had quite an afternoon"
actually or truly or to an extreme; "was quite a sudden change"; "it's quite the thing to do"; "quite the rage"; "Quite so!"
a horizontal (or nearly horizontal) passageway in a mine; "they dug a drift parallel with the vein"
the pervading meaning or tenor; "caught the general drift of the conversation"
a general tendency to change (as of opinion); "not openly liberal but that is the trend of the book"; "a broad movement of the electorate to the right"
something that is heaped up by the wind or by water currents
a force that moves something along
the gradual departure from an intended course due to external influences (as a ship or plane)
a process of linguistic change over a period of time
be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of wind or a current; "snow drifting several feet high"; "sand drifting like snow"
be subject to fluctuation; "The stock market drifted upward"
drive slowly and far afield for grazing; "drift the cattle herds westwards"
cause to be carried by a current; "drift the boats downstream"
move in an unhurried fashion; "The unknown young man drifted among the invited guests"
vary or move from a fixed point or course; "stock prices are drifting higher"
having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary; "the substantial world"; "a mere dream, neither substantial nor practical"; "most ponderous and substantial things"- Shakespeare
having a firm basis in reality and being therefore important, meaningful, or considerable; "substantial equivalents"
important in effect or meaning; "a significant change in tax laws"; "a significant change in the Constitution"; "a significant contribution"; "significant details"; "statistically significant"
too closely correlated to be attributed to chance and therefore indicating a systematic relation; "the interaction effect is significant at the .01 level"; "no significant difference was found"
presently existing in fact and not merely potential or possible; "the predicted temperature and the actual temperature were markedly different"; "actual and imagined conditions"
being or existing at the present moment; "the ship's actual position is 22 miles due south of Key West"
taking place in reality; not pretended or imitated; "we saw the actual wedding on television"; "filmed the actual beating"
existing in act or fact; "rocks and trees...the actual world"; "actual heroism"; "the actual things that produced the emotion you experienced"
being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something; "her actual motive"; "a literal solitude like a desert"- G.K.Chesterton; "a genuine dilemma"
a knowledge domain that you are interested in or are communicating about; "it was a limited domain of discourse"; "here we enter the region of opinion"; "the realm of the occult"
territory over which rule or control is exercised; "his domain extended into Europe"; "he made it the law of the land"
the set of values of the independent variable for which a function is defined
beyond the literal or primary sense; "`hot off the press' shows an extended sense of `hot'"
fully extended or stretched forth; "an extended telescope"; "his extended legs reached almost across the small room"; "refused to accept the extended hand"