drift-wood

Definition

1. Noun (uncountable):
   • Wood floating in water or washed ashore: "driftwood" refers to pieces of wood that have been carried by water (such as a river, lake, or ocean) and deposited on a beach or bank, often weathered and bleached by the elements.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • We collected pieces of driftwood along the shore to build a small fire. (Wood that had been washed up on the beach by the tides.)
  • The artist used driftwood to create a sculpture of a bird. (Weathered wood found on the coast, used as a material.)
  • After the storm, the river was full of driftwood. (Wood floating aimlessly in the water.)

Advanced Usage

• "driftwood" as a metaphor: Used to describe a person or thing that is aimless, rootless, or without a fixed home or purpose, much like wood drifting in water.
  • He felt like driftwood, moving from city to city with no real connections. (A person without stability or direction.)

Variants and Related Words

• Drift (n/v): the movement of something carried by a current; to be carried along by a current.
  • The drift of the boat was slow. (Movement caused by water.)
• Wood (n): the hard fibrous material from trees.
  • The table is made of wood. (Tree material.)

Synonyms

• Flotsam: floating wreckage or debris from a ship (often includes wood).
  • The beach was littered with flotsam and jetsam. (Wreckage and discarded items.)
• Log: a piece of cut or fallen tree trunk (though not necessarily water-carried).
  • We sat on a log near the campfire. (A fallen tree segment.)

Related Idioms

• "Like a piece of driftwood": describing someone or something that is passive, directionless, or at the mercy of external forces.
  • After losing his job, he drifted through life like a piece of driftwood. (Without purpose or control.)