Do you catch my drift

The earliest quotation in the Oxford English Dictionary for this sense of "drift" is dated 1526: "Harde it is . . . to perceyue the processe and dryfte of this treatyse."
Found on "Phrases dot org"

The speaker may be having trouble communicating with their audience and not knowing how to better explain.

This is similar to "do you feel me?" or "do you get it?".

Otherwise there is a certain mentality and a certain consciousness along with what the speaker & the audience are generally known to understand.

Bugsy says to his cohorts in crime "I took care of it. Do you catch my drift?".

Airhead

Airhead usually refers to someone's thinking or reasoning ability or performance. One's thinking ability may be impaired for a number of reasons. There may be medical reasons for thinking impairment. Chemicals can cause thinking impairment temporarily or prolonged. Of course, high risk chemicals can impair the brain health through intoxicants, but chemicals can reach the brain by being absorbed through the skin.

Someone who may seem like a so-called "airhead" may have unrevealed higher intelligence.

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