jettison

plural jettisons

1. collectiveuncountableItems that have been or are about to be ejected from a boat or balloon to lighten the vessel.

   Deep-sea divers discovered centuries-old jettison resting on the sandy seafloor.

   1 more example

   The shoreline was littered with the floating jettison from the wrecked freighter.

   Synonyms: jetsam ballast

2. countablelawThe act of throwing goods overboard to lighten a ship or aircraft in distress.

   The captain ordered the immediate jettison of the heavy cargo to save the sinking ship.

   1 more example

   The maritime court spent weeks reviewing the legality of the cargo jettison during the storm.

present singular third person jettisons · participle present jettisoning · participle past jettisoned · past jettisoned

1. To eject from a boat, submarine, aircraft, spaceship or hot-air balloon, so as to lighten the load.

   The fuel tanks were jettisoned.

   2 more examples

   The ballooners had to jettison all of their sand bags to make it over the final hill.

   Kidnapped Africans en route to the Americas were cursorily examined by the ship's surgeons in an attempt to cut losses by immediately jettisoning those with such stigmata as Winterbottom's sign, a swelling of the lymph nodes found in those who harbored trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness.

   2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Southern Discomfort”, in Medical Apartheid, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 60

   Synonyms: cast off, discard

2. figurativelyTo let go or get rid of as being useless or defective.

   […] 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.

   2018 October 30, David Streitfeld, “Where Trolls Reigned Free: A New History of Reddit”, in New York Times

   1 more example

   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.

   1957 July 28, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 496

   Synonyms: discard, chuck, ditch, dump, junk, lose, junk, 86 · Antonyms: adopt, embrace, keep, retain