Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for jetsam

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
“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


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of jetsam1

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of jetsam1

C16: shortened from jettison
Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

see flotsam and jetsam .
Discover More

Example Sentences

After being rescued from the ocean several times Buster spent the rest of the afternoon  collecting flotsam and jetsam.

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.

The flotsam and jetsam of too many sentimental stories and fairy tales were afloat in the child's active mind.

He gathered it in and swept his tiny flash around in search of other jetsam from his tool kit.

He might just as well, he might much better, slump down in a sodden heap amid the rest of the jetsam.

No, there had been no wreck, yet all about her lay the wave-sodden flotsam and jetsam of many past disasters.

Advertisement

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


jet propulsionjet set