Thei that wolen be maad riche, fallen in to temptacioun, and in to snare of the devil, and in to many unprofitable desiris and noyous, whiche drenchen men in to deth and perdicioun.—1 Tim. vi. 9. Wiclif.
Well may men knowe it was no wyght but he
That kepte peple Ebrayk fro hir drenching,
With drye feet thurgh-out the see passing.
Chaucer, The Man of Lawes Tale, 488 (Skeat).
Drift. A drove of sheep or cattle was once a ‘drift;’ so too the act of driving.
Hoc armentum, Anglice, a dryfte.—Wright-Wülcker, Vocab. 814. 11.
By reason of the foulness and deepness of the way divers of the said sheep died in driving; partly for lack of meat and feeding, but especially by mean of the said unreasonable drift the said sheep are utterly perished.—Trevelyan Papers, p. 130.
And Anton Shiel he loves me not,
For I gat twa drifts of his sheep;