flotsam

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flot·sam

 (flŏt′səm)
n.
1. Goods floating on the surface of a body of water after a shipwreck or after being cast overboard to lighten the ship.
2. Discarded or unimportant things: "Keyrings, bookmarks ... gum, scissors, paper clips ... pencils and pads stolen from various hotels: all this detritus, this flotsam of a life being lived at full throttle" (David Leavitt).
3. People who are considered to be worthless or to have been rejected by society.

[Anglo-Norman floteson, from Old French floter, to float, of Germanic origin; see pleu- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

flotsam

(ˈflɒtsəm)
n
1. (Nautical Terms) wreckage from a ship found floating. Compare jetsam1, lagan
2. useless or discarded objects; odds and ends (esp in the phrase flotsam and jetsam)
3. vagrants
[C16: from Anglo-French floteson, from floter to float]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

flot•sam

(ˈflɒt səm)

n.
1. the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water. Compare jetsam, lagan.
2. refuse floating on water.
3. useless or unimportant items; odds and ends.
4. a vagrant population.
Also called flot′sam and jet′sam (for defs. 3, 4).
[1600–10; < Anglo-French floteson, derivative of floter to float < Germanic; see float]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

flotsam

material floating on the sea, especially debris or goods from ship-wrecks. Cf. jetsam.
See also: Ships
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Flotsam

 parts of wreckage of a ship or cargo found floating on the sea, 1607; of odds and ends, 1861. See also jetsam.
Dictionary of Collective Nouns and Group Terms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.flotsam - the floating wreckage of a ship
wreckage - the remaining parts of something that has been wrecked; "they searched the wreckage for signs of survivors"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

flotsam

noun debris, sweepings, rubbish, junk, wreckage, detritus, odds and ends, jetsam The water was full of flotsam and refuse.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002
Translations

flotsam

[ˈflɒtsəm] N flotsam and jetsamrestos mpl (de naufragio) (Tech) (frm) → pecios mpl
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

flotsam

[ˈflɒtsəm] n
(= floating rubbish) → déchets mpl flottants, déchets mpl à la dérive
flotsam and jetsam (= floating rubbish) → déchets mpl flottants (= odds and ends) → objets mpl hétéroclites, déchets mpl
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

flotsam

nTreibgut nt; he was another of the city’s flotsamer gehörte auch zu den Gestrandeten der Stadt; flotsam and jetsam (floating) → Treibgut nt; (washed ashore) → Strandgut nt; the flotsam and jetsam of our societydie Gestrandeten plor das Strandgut unserer Gesellschaft
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

flotsam

[ˈflɒtsəm] n flotsam and jetsamrifiuti mpl portati dal mare (people) → relitti mpl
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
References in classic literature ?
And clear across to the Atlantic, the Junta in touch with them all and all of them needing guns, mere adventurers, soldiers of fortune, bandits, disgruntled American union men, socialists, anarchists, rough-necks, Mexican exiles, peons escaped from bondage, whipped miners from the bull-pens of Coeur d'Alene and Colorado who desired only the more vindictively to fight--all the flotsam and jetsam of wild spirits from the madly complicated modern world.
I found some of it hard to endure, though I am a mild-tempered man; but, certainly, when I told the captain to "shut up" I had forgotten that I was merely a bit of human flotsam, cut off from my resources and with my fare unpaid; a mere casual dependant on the bounty, or speculative enterprise, of the ship.
Financiers and promoters, and all the flotsam and jetsam of the sea of speculation surged upon the shores of his eleven millions.