castaway

[kast-uh-wey, kahst-]

noun

1. a shipwrecked person.

2. anything cast adrift or thrown away.

3. an outcast.

   Synonyms: leper, outlaw, pariah

adjective

1. cast adrift.

2. thrown away.

castaway

/ ˈkɑːstəˌweɪ /

noun

1. a person who has been shipwrecked

2. something thrown off or away; castoff

adjective

1. shipwrecked or put adrift

2. thrown away or rejected

verb

1. (tr, adverb; often passive) to cause (a ship, person, etc) to be shipwrecked or abandoned

Word History and Origins

Origin of castaway¹

First recorded in 1520–30; noun, adj. use of verb phrase cast away

Example Sentences

The two other prominent theories are that Earhart crash-landed on or near the then-Japanese Marshall Islands, or that she made it to Nikumaroro island near Kiribati and died a castaway there.

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The Times was soon writing about a new breed of homeless in L.A.: economic castaways who had lost jobs in the recession.

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The coastguard said a French Navy Dauphin helicopter was monitoring the area where the boat sank "to confirm the successful recovery of all the castaways".

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His ancestry is ambiguous, and he is described in the book as "a dark-skinned gipsy" and "a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway".

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Years later when a shred of aircraft aluminum and the rubber heel from a woman’s shoe were found on an island 400 miles from Earhart’s destination, she was imagined to have been a castaway.

Read more on Los Angeles Times