Meaning & use
jettison
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To throw cargo or equipment out of a ship, aircraft or vehicle to make it lighter, especially in an emergency.
Grammar: Takes an object: the pilot jettisoned the fuel.
Patterns
- jettison something from something
The captain ordered the crew to jettison the heavy cargo during the storm.
The pilot jettisoned fuel before landing the damaged plane.
The rocket jettisoned its empty booster after two minutes.
verbtransitivefigurative
To get rid of an idea, plan, habit or possession that is no longer useful or wanted.
Grammar: Takes an object and suggests a decisive, sometimes sudden, rejection: jettison a plan.
Patterns
- jettison a plan
- jettison someone
The new manager jettisoned the old marketing strategy.
She jettisoned her bad habits when she moved abroad.
The party jettisoned its leader after the poor election result.
noununcountablespecialist
The act of throwing goods overboard to lighten a vessel or aircraft.
Grammar: Rare as a noun; mostly found in shipping and maritime law.
The captain's jettison of the deck cargo saved the ship.
Insurance rules treat jettison as a special kind of loss.
Emergency jettison of fuel is a standard procedure for some aircraft.
Word forms
| third person singular | jettisons |
|---|---|
| past tense | jettisoned |
| past participle | jettisoned |
| -ing form | jettisoning |
Common combinations
- jettison cargo
- The crew had to jettison cargo to stay afloat.
- jettison a plan
- The council jettisoned the plan after public protests.
- jettison ballast
- The balloonist jettisoned ballast to gain height.
- jettison fuel
- The aircraft jettisoned fuel over the sea.
- jettison baggage
- He tried to jettison the baggage of his past.
Synonyms and how they differ
- discard
- Discard is the everyday word for throwing something away, with no hint of emergency or lightening a load.
- abandon
- Abandon suggests leaving something behind for good, often with regret, where jettison is quick and practical.
- dump
- Dump is informal and sounds careless, whereas jettison suggests a deliberate, reasoned decision.
- scrap
- Scrap is used mostly for plans and projects and sounds more casual than jettison.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: jettison or jetsam?
jettison vs jetsam
Jetsam is the cargo that was thrown overboard on purpose; jettison is the verb for doing so.
Practice
To lighten the sinking boat, the crew had to ____ the heavy crates into the sea.
Choose one answer.
Jettison means to throw cargo overboard to reduce weight. Preserve, hoard and retrieve all mean keeping or getting things back.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “jettison”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.