English Dictionary
Definition of “flotsam”
flotsam (ˈflɒtsəm
)
Definitions
noun
- wreckage from a ship found floating Compare jetsam (sense 1)
, lagan
- useless or discarded objects; odds and ends (esp in the phrase flotsam and jetsam)
- vagrants
Word Origin
C16: from Anglo-French floteson , from floter to float
Usage examples
They had been thrown over so hard that the flotsam had speared straight through the glass.
Lunnon-Wood, Mike, Let Not the Deep (1994)Meanwhile, with skeletal staff and time stolen from sleep time, these dotcom flotsam continue to bob in cybersea.
Business Today (2002)They're designed to filter out common pocket and purse flotsam such as lint, gum wrappers and paper clips.
Toronto Sun (2003)All ferry traffic was suspended, so we were forced on to footpath-less roads or muddy lakeside tracks, beside the plastic flotsam.
Belfast Telegraph (2003)The bathrooms and verandas were scattered with shells, fragments of coral, and Indian Ocean flotsam and jetsam.
Aidan Hartley, THE ZANZIBAR CHEST: A Memoir of Love and War (2003)
