Drifting in river, like male cattle (10)
I believe the answer is:
rudderless
'drifting' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'river like male cattle' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'river' could be 'r' (abbreviation for river) and 'r' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'udderless' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rudderless that I've seen before include "Having lost control" , "Unable to provide guidance" , "Lacking direction" , "Without steering mechanism" , "not yielding power to steer" .)