How to Use flotsam in a Sentence

flotsam

noun
Definition of flotsamnext
Synonyms for flotsamnext
  • Those trees were about the only thing that stopped the flotsam that shot down the water chute.
    — azcentral, 15 May 2018
  • But even the films that, at the time, were written off as flotsam and jetsam . .
    — Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader, 20 Apr. 2018
  • Dark, kind of grim, not all that catchy, full of flotsam, and full of transcendence.
    — Christopher Borrelli, chicagotribune.com, 27 Aug. 2021
  • The idea that the smell of plastic flotsam might lure animals to their doom first emerged in 2016.
    — The Economist, 12 Mar. 2020
  • And then it was put up for auction like a piece of celebrity flotsam.
    — Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2022
  • Most of the needles had caps on, Rau said, and no one had been injured by the flotsam as of Tuesday.
    — Madeline McGee, Anchorage Daily News, 30 July 2019
  • This is not the first time the Chinese have threatened the planet with a falling piece of Long March flotsam.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 4 Nov. 2022
  • Waves and wind send flotsam and jetsam across vast stretches of ocean.
    — Carl Hoffman, Outside Online, 3 Apr. 2018
  • So it is left to Mochida to curate the flotsam and jetsam of the coronavirus.
    — Yuri Kageyama, USA TODAY, 20 Aug. 2020
  • When the Islamic State tide went out, Hadizha, 8, was found like flotsam in a Mosul street.
    — Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2018
  • These bridges were designed with handrails that could be removed, so tree limbs and other bits of flotsam didn’t get stuck.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 16 Sep. 2017
  • The men were forced to abandon the vessel and build a rudimentary cabin on land from bits of the ship and flotsam scavenged from the shore.
    — Star Tribune, 8 Jan. 2021
  • The medics were treating up to 60 casualties per day; many were civilians, the flotsam of war.
    — Fred Dickey, sandiegouniontribune.com, 18 June 2017
  • The den of the model home is converted to a second bedroom, and flotsam of everyday life from the time will be in view.
    — By Roxie Hammill, kansascity.com, 30 May 2017
  • Smallest flotsam and jetsam can be used as the base for your newest compost pile.
    — Sally McCabe, Philly.com, 5 Apr. 2018
  • Every white cap is a head sticking out of the water, every piece of flotsam is a dorsal fin.
    — James Griffiths, CNN, 21 Sep. 2017
  • The tire reef is different from the usual flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict.
    — Hillary Davis, Daily Pilot, 19 Oct. 2017
  • And this is nothing new for the Angels, who have thrown all sorts of flotsam and jetsam into left, only to watch it predictably fail.
    — Jon Tayler, SI.com, 31 Aug. 2017
  • But there is none of the designer’s flotsam: papers, books, sketches.
    — Christina Binkley, WSJ, 24 Apr. 2017
  • As the snow melts into muck, little clusters of flotsam and jetsam emerge in the far corners of everyone’s yards.
    — Sally Higginson, chicagotribune.com, 7 Mar. 2018
  • Find a list of materials to prepare ahead of time (think egg crates, tin cans and other around-the-house flotsam) on the website or Facebook page.
    — Emily Matchar, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 May 2020
  • Storms and currents in the gulf of Alaska deliver all manner of flotsam to shore—never, though, a bounty like this one.
    — John Clarke, WSJ, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Mortgage rates follow the 10-year closely, which was one bright spot coming out of Monday's flotsam.
    — oregonlive.com, 5 Aug. 2019
  • At the end of the passage, seawater pooled, which meant wading through a mucky pond teeming with driftwood and mystery flotsam.
    — James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2021
  • Everything was saved by default, so all the flotsam and jetsam of daily work was captured in a sort of running ledger.
    — Ellen Cushing, The Atlantic, 12 Oct. 2021
  • But as the sheetwebs spin silk to flee an inhospitable habitat, their webs are flotsam from an evacuation.
    — Rebecca Giggs, The Atlantic, 9 Nov. 2021
  • The entire red flag approach will collapse under its own weight, taking down the goodness of the idea by allowing flotsam and riffraff to sink the entire ship.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 29 June 2022
  • Nothing has surfaced recently, and studying the flotsam hasn’t produced much to go on.
    — Barbara S. Peterson, Popular Mechanics, 31 July 2018
  • In the rough, cold sea, Mr. Mulki, a 22-year-old Syrian asylum seeker, held his 6-year-old brother Sultan with one arm and a piece of flotsam with the other.
    — Margherita Stancati, WSJ, 2 Apr. 2023
  • The lighting designer, Natasha Katz, makes the night in this shadowy realm seem deeper with fog and moonlight—we’re down where the mud larks go, those who scavenge the Thames’s banks, looking for flotsam to sell.
    — Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'flotsam.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: