unmoored
Set to drift
Unmoored describes something that has been cut loose from its moorings—the lines or anchors that hold a boat in place.
The figurative sense dominates: feeling unmoored is to feel adrift, disconnected from the people, places, or beliefs that once provided stability.
After the divorce, she felt completely unmoored.
The company seemed unmoored from its founding principles.
Deprived through loss
- adriftFloating without control
- groundlessLacking factual support
- anchorlessHaving no securing weight
- desolateBleak and abandoned
lost · displaced · hollowed · emptied · grieving · rudderless · purposeless · aimless
Having no securing weight
- adriftFloating without control
- driftingMoving without purpose
- rudderlessLacking guidance or direction
- untetheredNot fastened to anything
cast-off · unanchored · afloat · floating · buoyant · currents · tide · shipwreck
Apart or uninvolved
- severedCut off completely
- untetheredNot fastened to anything
- disengagedNot participating or invested
- estrangedSeparated by emotional distance
alienated · isolated · disassociated · cut-off · separated · divorced · unattached · adrift
Lacking sense of direction
- destabilizedMade less secure
- unanchoredNot fastened down
- groundlessLacking factual support
- uncertainNot firmly known
insecure · anxious · uneasy · restless · vulnerable · lost · confused · shaken
Moving without purpose
- rootlessHaving no stable foundation
- nomadicWithout fixed residence
- itinerantMoving for work
- vagabondHomeless, aimless wanderer
roaming · peripatetic · wayfaring · homeless · stateless · transient · floating · directionless
Not fastened to anything
- liberatedReleased from confinement
- unboundNot tied down
- unfetteredFree from restriction
- unrestrainedNot held back
unconstrained · unshackled · free-floating · unrestricted · unchained · released · loosed · unbridled
bereft
Deprived through loss
- adriftFloating without control
- groundlessLacking factual support
- anchorlessHaving no securing weight
desolate · lost · displaced · hollowed · emptied · grieving · rudderless · purposeless · aimless · directionless
anchorless
Having no securing weight
- adriftFloating without control
- driftingMoving without purpose
- rudderlessLacking guidance or direction
untethered · cast-off · unanchored · afloat · floating · buoyant · currents · tide · shipwreck · castaway
detached
Apart or uninvolved
- severedCut off completely
- untetheredNot fastened to anything
- disengagedNot participating or invested
estranged · alienated · isolated · disassociated · cut-off · separated · divorced · unattached · adrift · rootless
disoriented
Lacking sense of direction
- destabilizedMade less secure
- unanchoredNot fastened down
- groundlessLacking factual support
uncertain · insecure · anxious · uneasy · restless · vulnerable · lost · confused · shaken · disturbed
drifting
Moving without purpose
vagabond · roaming · peripatetic · wayfaring · homeless · stateless · transient · floating · directionless · aimless
untethered
Not fastened to anything
- liberatedReleased from confinement
- unboundNot tied down
- unfetteredFree from restriction
unrestrained · unconstrained · unshackled · free-floating · unrestricted · unchained · released · loosed · unbridled · autonomous
- disorientationconfusion, dizziness, vertigo, bewilderment, daze
- Floatingfloat, floating, afloat, hover, hovering
- aimlessnessaimlessness, directionless, drifting, purposelessness, wandering
- chaosmayhem, chaotic, pandemonium, bedlam, turmoil
- outcastsoutcast, pariah, pariahs, outcasts, outlaws
- lostlost, missing, mislaid, misplaced, gone