Jump to content

jettison

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]
WOTD – 6 April 2007
The external fuel tank is jettisoned from the Space Shuttle Atlantis and falls toward Earth’s atmosphere during the completion of the launch phase of the STS-110 mission. (NASA)

Etymology

[edit]

From Anglo-Norman getteson, from Old French getaison, from geter, jeter (modern French: would be *jetaison like pendaison); possibly from a Vulgar Latin *iectātiō, from *iectātus < iectāre, from Latin iactō. Doublet of jetsam.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

jettison (plural jettisons)

  1. (uncountable, collective) Items that have been or are about to be ejected from a boat or balloon.
    Synonym: jetsam ballast
  2. (countable) The action of jettisoning items.

Translations

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

jettison (third-person singular simple present jettisons, present participle jettisoning, simple past and past participle jettisoned)

  1. To eject from a boat, submarine, aircraft, spaceship or hot-air balloon, so as to lighten the load.
    The ballooners had to jettison all of their sand bags to make it over the final hill.
    The fuel tanks were jettisoned.
  2. (figurative) To let go or get rid of as being useless or defective.
    Synonyms: discard, chuck, ditch, dump, junk, lose; see also Thesaurus:junk
    • 1957 July, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 496:
      Among the most modern of all the Pacific stock in Great Britain is the stud of "Merchant Navy" and "West Country" Pacifics on the Southern Region, and the rebuilding which is now being carried out, preserving all the best features of the Bulleid designs—such as the free-steaming boiler—and jettisoning the features that have given trouble, in particular the chain-driven valve-motion, should give the Southern a supply of highly-competent machines able to last out the remaining life of steam on the S.R.
    • 2018 October 30, David Streitfeld, “Where Trolls Reigned Free: A New History of Reddit”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      […] the defense of horrendous behavior as “free speech”; the jettisoning of “free speech” when it served corporate purposes; the way no one seeks permission but all expect forgiveness.

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=jettison&oldid=89217787"