drift-wood, ˈdriftwood
1. Wood floating on, or cast ashore by, the water. Esp. wood carried down by a river. Formerly freq. U.S.
| [1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 743 They have no wood but drift.] 1633 T. James Voy. 26 There was great store of drift wood. 1780 Coxe Russ. Disc. 42 Forobieff built another small vessel with drift-wood. 1785 Washington Diary 3 Aug. (1925) II. 396 It would probably be frequently choaked with drift wood, Ice, and other rubbish. Ibid. 25 Jan. (1925) IV. 79 The river there is..full of small islands occasioned by drift wood lodging on the rocks. 1821 J. Fowler Jrnl. 22 Oct. (1898) 26 The men Waided over and geathered drift Wood for the night. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxiii. 72 [We] made a fire..with the drift-wood. 1848 J. F. Cooper Oak Openings I. iii. 47 The drift-wood choked the channel. 1850 H. C. Watson Camp-fires Revol. 67 That exposed our boats to being all the time tangled in the drift-wood and bushes. 1884 ‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn vii. 50 The river was coming up pretty fast, and lots of drift-wood going by on the rise. |
2. fig. Also attrib.
| 1840 Daily Picayune (New Orleans) (D.A.E.), Kendall will cut a ‘swell’ at our next drift-wood training. 1865 J. G. Holland Plain Talks 224 A lodging place for political drift-wood. 1907 Daily Chron. 23 July 4/6 The metropolis attracts human driftwood from all quarters. |