flotsam

[ flot-suhm ]

See synonyms for flotsam on Thesaurus.com

noun

the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water.: Compare jetsam, lagan.
material or refuse floating on water.

useless or unimportant items; odds and ends.
a vagrant, penniless population: the flotsam of the city slums in medieval Europe.

Origin of flotsam

1600–10; <Anglo-French floteson, derivative of floter to float <Old English flotian

Also called flotsam and jetsam (for defs. 3, 4).

Words that may be confused with flotsam

flotsam , jetsam

Words Nearby flotsam

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use flotsam in a sentence

The flotsam and jetsam of our digital queries and transactions, the flurry of electrons flitting about, warm the medium of air.
Inside the physical footprint of the Cloud | Steven Gonzales Monserrate/The MIT Press Reader | February 14, 2022 | Popular-Science
Getting rid of the flotsam in your home was a virtuous activity even before the pandemic, when lockdowns gave millions of people plenty of time to take a hard look at their stuff.
Bed Bath and Beyond tried decluttering and shoppers rebelled | Lila MacLellan | January 31, 2022 | Quartz
These regions are like cosmic dead zones and have been collecting planetary flotsam for billions of years.
Spacecraft in 2021 set their sights on Mars, asteroids and beyond | Lisa Grossman | December 22, 2021 | Science News
There is a bucket in our heads that is always at least partially filled with the flotsam of pandemic decision-making, and even when it’s only a couple inches deep, we are drowning in it.
The Year Of Choosing Dangerously | Maggie Koerth (maggie.koerth-baker@fivethirtyeight.com) | March 11, 2021 | FiveThirtyEight
After being rescued from the ocean several times Buster spent the rest of the afternoon collecting flotsam and jetsam.
Why I Hate The Beach | P. J. O’Rourke | July 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST

The sifter dumped flotsam—bricks, wiring, barbecue grills, bicycle wheels—in piles to be shipped to landfills upstate.
Superstorm Who? Sandy’s Hard-Hit Beach Towns Reopen for Business | Eliza Shapiro, Josh Dzieza | May 25, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
Once the sand was plowed back onto the beaches, volunteers scoured it for any flotsam that got through the sifting machines.
Superstorm Who? Sandy’s Hard-Hit Beach Towns Reopen for Business | Eliza Shapiro, Josh Dzieza | May 25, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
Debris originally thought to belong to the airplane has turned out to be unrelated flotsam.
Before 447: Seven Other Plane-Crash Mysteries | The Daily Beast | June 5, 2009 | THE DAILY BEAST
We were in hopes they would look upon our boat as flotsam and jetsam, of which there was more or less strewn upon the beach.
Famous Adventures And Prison Escapes of the Civil War | Various
The spectators melted away into the gathering mist and rain, a flotsam of black umbrellas.
Sinister Street, vol. 1 | Compton Mackenzie
The flotsam and jetsam of too many sentimental stories and fairy tales were afloat in the child's active mind.
Mildred's Inheritance | Annie Fellows Johnston
We sometimes wondered whether any of the flotsam thus cast upon the waters ever reached the civilized world.
The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson
When the weather cleared again, I don't know how long it was, I crawled down and overhauled the flotsam.
Isle o' Dreams | Frederick F. Moore

British Dictionary definitions for flotsam

flotsam

/ (ˈflɒtsəm) /

noun

wreckage from a ship found floating: Compare jetsam (def. 1), lagan
useless or discarded objects; odds and ends (esp in the phrase flotsam and jetsam)

vagrants

Origin of flotsam

C16: from Anglo-French floteson, from floter to float

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

Browse