flotsam

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POMPTON LAKES - The whole trees, stumps, branches and other flotsam are gone and the water is flowing freely once more over the Pompton Lake Dam.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun Wreckage or cargo that remains afloat after a ship has sunk.
  2. noun Floating refuse or debris.
  3. noun Discarded odds and ends.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

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Examples (50)

  • All that remained to mark the spot was flotsam, a few lifeboats and rafts, several massive oil slicks, and a huge pall of smoke, gradually dispersing on the wind. —  Luftwaffe Victorious
  • They are being flung about like flotsam, and the precarity once reserved for blue-collar workers is now inside the corner office and the corporate boardroom as well. —  Renegade Futurist
  • POMPTON LAKES - The whole trees, stumps, branches and other flotsam are gone and the water is flowing freely once more over the Pompton Lake Dam. —  Latest News
  • And James' quick eyes watched the slow surge of his flotsam, as the pot boiled but did not boil away. —  The Lost Girl
  • Cayn't you lif' your han A hand shot up from the back of a log that was well hidden by other flotsam, then fell back weakly. —  Sally of Missouri
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Anglo-Norman floteson, from Old French floter, to float, of Germanic origin; see pleu- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also formerly flotzam, flotsom, flotsome (and dial. floatsome, q. v.), corrupt forms of the more orig. flotson, flotsen, contr. of *flottison (cf. jetsam, from jettison); from Old French *flotaison, flotsam, not found in this special sense, but the same as Old French flotaison, French dial. flotaison, the flooding or irrigation of meadows, French flottaison, the line of flotation, water-line, from floter, flotter, float, from Latin fluctuare, float: see float, v., flotation. Flotsam, which has hitherto been unexplained as to its termination, is thus a corrupt form, a doublet of flotation (ult. of fluctuation), as the associated jetsam, jettison, is of jactation.
 

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/ˈflɑtsəm/
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