logjam

[ lawg-jam, log- ]
See synonyms for logjam on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an immovable pileup or tangle of logs, as in a river, causing a blockage.

  2. any blockage or massive accumulation: a logjam of bills before Congress.

Origin of logjam

1
First recorded in 1880–85; log1 + jam1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use logjam in a sentence

  • After traveling just 15 miles in three hours her water broke and the log jam on the hard shoulder delayed an ambulance.

  • Macnamara, a famous white-water birler, had met his fate in the breaking of a log-jam some years before.

    The Boss of Wind River | David Goodger (goodger@python.org)
  • Hugh, Jack, and Fannin were now stretched out at different points on the log jam, gazing at the fish beneath them.

    Jack the Young Canoeman | George Bird Grinnell
  • He went down and stamped on the log-jam, and presently a fat cow ran out and Kŭt-o-yĭs killed it.

    Blackfeet Indian Stories | George Bird Grinnell
  • Now, the son-in-law was a person of much mysterious power, and he kept the buffalo hidden under a big log-jam in the river.

    Blackfeet Indian Stories | George Bird Grinnell
  • They went to the log-jam and the old man drove out the buffalo and his son-in-law killed a fat buffalo cow.

    Blackfeet Indian Stories | George Bird Grinnell

British Dictionary definitions for log jam

log jam

nounmainly US and Canadian
  1. blockage caused by the crowding together of a number of logs floating in a river

  2. a deadlock; standstill

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012