verb (used with object) to cast (goods) overboard in order to lighten a vessel or aircraft or to improve its stability in an emergency.
to throw off (something) as an obstacle or burden; discard.
Cards to discard (an unwanted card or cards).
noun the act of casting goods from a vessel or aircraft to lighten or stabilize it.
Origin of jettison 1375–1425; late Middle English jetteson <
Anglo-French; Old French getaison ≪
Latin jactātiōn- (stem of
jactātiō )
jactation Related forms jet·ti·son·a·ble , adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for jettison junk ,
abdicate ,
dump ,
unload ,
scrap ,
shed ,
abandon ,
discard ,
expel ,
reject ,
cashier ,
maroon ,
cast ,
slough ,
hurl ,
heave ,
deep-six Examples from the Web for jettison Contemporary Examples of jettison Jettison your lawyers as a source of prison-yard guidance, Abramoff said.
But they also bequeathed to us a founding racism that we have found it almost impossible to jettison .
The other companies to jettison Deen were more interested in their image than the bottom line.
Nor does he believe it will force the company to jettison full-time workers.
It will jettison the reactionary messages that alienated so many persuadable voters in 2012.
Historical Examples of jettison They might have defeated their own purpose by making him jettison his contraband!
If it came to the worst, he thought, he could jettison his pack.
So its cheapest to jettison haythanks for that new word, Ed.
No occasion to jettison any of our cargo yet, however useless it may be.
What the country then needed was a jettison of compromises, and a resolution of doubts.
British Dictionary definitions for jettison verb -sons , -soning or -soned (tr) to throw away; abandon to jettison old clothes
to throw overboard
Show More
Word Origin for jettison C15: from Old French getaison, ultimately from Latin jactātiō a tossing about; see jactation
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
Word Origin and History for jettison v. 1848, from jettison (n.) "act of throwing overboard" to lighten a ship. This noun was an 18c. Marine Insurance writers' restoration of the earlier form and original sense of the 15c. word that had become jetsam , probably because jetsam had taken on a sense of "things cast overboard" and an unambiguous word was needed for "act of throwing overboard."
Middle English jetteson (n.) "act of throwing overboard" is from Anglo-French getteson , from Old French getaison "act of throwing (goods overboard)," especially to lighten a ship in distress, from Late Latin iactionem (nominative iactatio ) "act of throwing," noun of action from past participle stem of iectare "toss about" (see jet (v.)). Related: Jettisoned .
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
