alla deriva

Italian

Etymology

Compare French à la dérive.

Adverb

alla deriva

1. adrift
   • 2013, F. Scott Fitzgerald, translated by Ferruccio Russo, Il Grande Gatsby [The Great Gatsby], Edizioni Scientifiche e Artistiche, page 40:

     Avevano passato un anno in Francia senza un motivo particolare e poi erano andati alla deriva senza mai fermarsi, ovunque ci fosse gente che giocava a polo e che fosse ugualmente ricca.

     They had spent a year in France, for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.

     (literally, “They had spent a year in France without a particular reason and then they went adrift without ever stopping themselves, wherever there were people who played polo and who were equally rich.”)