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driftwood

driftwood

13 3.0
Wood washed up on a beach or floating in water
  • noun
  • /ˈdrɪftˌwʊd/
: madera a la deriva
  • Among these random rocks rested huge trunks of driftwood, long beached and bleached by the waves.

I may be either the driftwood in the stream or Indra in the sky looking down on it.

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Examples

  • We invented games with seashells and pebbles and pieces of driftwood.

  • I remember helping the men comb the beaches for driftwood to build the frame for the boat.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • My son found a piece of driftwood this morning.

  • You know, something like, some piece of driftwood, a block of ice or something like that.

  • I broke some of the driftwood smaller in my hands and fed the fire back up.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • I have some driftwood from Lake Erie, no less.

  • Sophie bent and picked up a small piece of driftwood and threw it into the water.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • With methodical care, Inyanga gathered driftwood and spread it in the sun to dry.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • The witch was sitting in an arbor made of driftwood branches overgrown with vines.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • While walking along the shore, I picked up a piece of driftwood that had been sculpted by the sea.

Surface Forms

driftwood singular
driftwoods plural

Morphology

driftwood = drift + wood (transparent) = drift + wood

Clear compound of 'drift' + 'wood' meaning 'wood that has drifted' or washed ashore, directly derivable by learners.

Etymology

Driftwood comes from the parts drift and wood. Drift means 'to be carried along by water or wind' and wood means 'tree material', so driftwood is wood that floats or is washed up on the shore.