flotsam

6 8.0

Pieces of a ship or its goods that float after a shipwreck

noun
/ˈflɑːtsəm/

: madera flotante

The beach is littered with flotsam, bits of rope, and plastic bottles.
flotsam and jetsam

If we let these Bantam buried phantoms master us as they reappear, we'll be swept back helplessly in the flood tide like pieces of flotsam, right?

Examples

Pool toys bobbed atop the water like flotsam from a shipwreck.

Fiction book (1999)
On the beach, the wrack line lay thick with whatever flotsam the waves had driven home.

Fiction book (2002)
It's only a bit of flotsam, sir.

S.O.S. Titanic (1980)
A very significant piece of flotsam, eh?

Jamaica Inn (1939)
A tree branch and other flotsam are being carried downstream by the current.

Fiction book (1996)
The beach is littered with seaweed and flotsam, bits of rope, and plastic bottles.

Fiction book (2000)
Crabs, eels, flounder, and other marine creatures wash in like so much flotsam.

Academic text (2006)
Oudeis ordered them to scavenge among the broken timbers and other flotsam that had washed ashore.

Fiction book (1995)
On the beach, the wrack line lay thick with whatever flotsam the waves had driven home.
Huge crowds of people gathered on the beach like flotsam washed up by the waves.

Synonyms

jetsam

vsflotsam

Specialized

2 8.7

Things that a ship throws into the sea to make the ship lighter, often wash ashore

is floating wreckage not usually thrown from the vessel

flotsam and jetsam

vsflotsam

2 7.4

Unwanted things left behind, often washed up on a beach

is specific floating ship wreckage rather than broad discarded items

Compounds

flotsam and jetsam

2 7.4

Unwanted things left behind, often washed up on a beach

Surface Forms

flotsam singular

flotsams plural

Etymology

Flotsam comes from an old word that meant 'to float', the same idea as the common English word float. It originally named bits of a ship or its cargo that float after a wreck, so today flotsam means floating wreckage.