noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Items thrown overboard from a ship or boat in distress in order to lighten its load. countable, uncountable

   "There she was, floating amongst the jetsam, like so much debris."

2. 2
   the floating wreckage of a ship wordnet
3. 3
   Discarded or leftover odds and ends. broadly, countable, uncountable

   "They were the jetsam of the dot-com bust."

4. 4
   the part of a ship's equipment or cargo that is thrown overboard to lighten the load in a storm wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

flotsamcastawaycastoffderelictdiscarddogie

Example

More examples

"There she was, floating amongst the jetsam, like so much debris."

Etymology

From Middle English jetteson, from Anglo-Norman getteson. Doublet of jettison.

Related phrases

flotsam and jetsamflotsam and jetsamodds and ends

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.