cast adrift

1. Literally, of a ship or sailors, to float on a body of water without control or anchorage. The team was cast adrift in the Atlantic for 17 days before a rescue party found them. Most of us were cast adrift after that gigantic wave crashed down on the deck. If the crew was cast adrift in that storm, would even the Coast Guard be able to find them?

2. To be let go, freed, or lost. Likened to a ship that drifts without an anchor or moorings to a dock. When I arrived in the country, I found myself cast adrift in a city I didn't know, among people whose language I couldn't speak. With my inheritance money, I was cast adrift to pursue whatever life I fancied. Somehow, my poor little boy was cast adrift on the field trip and left to wander the museum helplessly on his own.

3. To leave someone to float on a body of water without control or anchorage. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "cast" and "adrift." That awful storm cast us adrift in the Atlantic for 17 days before a rescue party found us. Sir, I think we should stay at port. Waves that size are liable to cast us adrift! Do any of the men you found remember what happened to cast them adrift?

4. To let someone go or cause them to be freed or lost; to no longer support someone. Likened to a ship that is left to drift without an anchor or moorings to a dock. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "cast" and "adrift." I think it's about time that we cast the extremists of the party adrift. Her parents cast her adrift after they found drugs in her room. I know I really messed things up for us financially, but we took marriage vows! You can't just cast me adrift like that!