jetsam

Or jet·som

[jet-suhm]

noun

1. goods cast overboard deliberately, as to lighten a vessel or improve its stability in an emergency, which sink where jettisoned or are washed ashore.

jetsam

/ ˈdʒɛtsəm /

noun

1. that portion of the equipment or cargo of a vessel thrown overboard to lighten her, as during a storm Compare flotsam lagan

2. another word for flotsam

Word History and Origins

Origin of jetsam¹

1560–70; alteration of jetson, syncopated variant of jettison

Word History and Origins

Origin of jetsam¹

C16: shortened from _jettison

Idioms and Phrases

see flotsam and jetsam.

Example Sentences

It was enough to make a person feel no more than a speck, a scrap of flotsam or jetsam tossing in the waves, to be cast willy-nilly into such an unimaginable expanse.

Read more on Literature

While the garden is rooted in local culture, built bit by bit from the flotsam and jetsam of Los Angeles locations and plants native to the ecology, the programming is more global in approach.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The cavernous space is mostly filled with chairs, desks, filing cabinets and other bureaucratic jetsam.

Read more on Seattle Times

"It was impossible not to conclude," he later wrote, that for Powell "the struggle was about achieving long-term objectives, not simply a mastery of the flotsam and jetsam of current events".

Read more on BBC

Even though Polk was severely injured, Faulkingham said, he was safe and felt God was watching as flotsam and jetsam from his boat was pushed ashore.

Read more on Seattle Times