Word Meanings - DRIFTWOOD - Book Publishers vocabulary database

1. Wood drifted or floated by water. 2. Fig.: Whatever is drifting or floating as on water. The current of humanity, with its heavy proportion of very useless driftwood. New Your Times.

Related words: (words related to DRIFTWOOD)

• WATER-BEARER
  The constellation Aquarius.
• WATERWORT
  Any plant of the natural order Elatineæ, consisting of two genera , mostly small annual herbs growing in the edges of ponds. Some have a peppery or acrid taste.
• WATER SHREW
  Any one of several species of shrews having fringed feet and capable of swimming actively. The two common European species are the best known. The most common American water shrew, or marsh shrew , is rarely seen, owing to its nocturnal habits.
• WATER-TIGHT
  So tight as to retain, or not to admit, water; not leaky.
• WATER RAT
  The water vole. See under Vole. The muskrat. The beaver rat. See under Beaver. 2. A thief on the water; a pirate.
• WATER CRAKE
  The dipper. The spotted crake . See Illust. of Crake. The swamp hen, or crake, of Australia.
• DRIFTBOLT
  A bolt for driving out other bolts.
• WATER DOG
  A dog accustomed to the water, or trained to retrieve waterfowl. Retrievers, waters spaniels, and Newfoundland dogs are so trained.
• PROPORTIONATE
  Adjusted to something else according to a proportion; proportional. Longfellow. What is proportionate to his transgression. Locke.
• WATER SAIL
  A small sail sometimes set under a studding sail or under a driver boom, and reaching nearly to the water.
• WATER CLOCK
  An instrument or machine serving to measure time by the fall, or flow, of a certain quantity of water; a clepsydra.
• WATERIE
  The pied wagtail; -- so called because it frequents ponds.
• WATER BALLAST
  Water confined in specially constructed compartments in a vessel's hold, to serve as ballast.
• WATER RAM
  An hydraulic ram.
• WATER LINE
  Any one of certain lines of a vessel, model, or plan, parallel with the surface of the water at various heights from the keel. Note: In a half-breadth plan, the water lines are outward curves showing the horizontal form of the ship at their several
• WATER LOCUST
  A thorny leguminous tree which grows in the swamps of the Mississippi valley.
• WATER PARSNIP
  Any plant of the aquatic umbelliferous genus Sium, poisonous herbs with pinnate or dissected leaves and small white flowers.
• WATERING
  a. & n. from Water, v. Watering call , a sound of trumpet or bugle summoning cavalry soldiers to assemble for the purpose of watering their horses. -- Watering cart, a sprinkling cart. See Water. -- Watering place. A place where water may be
• WATERWORN
  Worn, smoothed, or polished by the action of water; as, waterworn stones.
• WATER CROW
  The dipper. The European coot.
• DISPROPORTIONALLY
  In a disproportional manner; unsuitably in form, quantity, or value; unequally.
• INHUMANITY
  The quality or state of being inhuman; cruelty; barbarity. Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn. Burns.
• IMPROPORTIONATE
  Not proportionate.
• DIRECT CURRENT
  A current flowing in one direction only; -- distinguished from alternating current. When steady and not pulsating a direct current is often called a continuous current. A direct induced current, or momentary current of the same direction as the
• BETIME; BETIMES
  1. In good season or time; before it is late; seasonably; early. To measure life learn thou betimes. Milton. To rise betimes is often harder than to do all the day's work. Barrow. 2. In a short time; soon; speedily; forth with. He tires betimes
• DISPROPORTIONABLE
  Disproportional; unsuitable in form, size, quantity, or adaptation; disproportionate; inadequate. -- Dis`pro*por"tion*a*ble*ness, n. Hammond. -- Dis`pro*por"tion*a*bly, adv.
• DISPROPORTIONALITY
  The state of being disproportional. Dr. H. More.
• JAPAN CURRENT
  A branch of the equatorial current of the Pacific, washing the eastern coast of Formosa and thence flowing northeastward past Japan and merging into the easterly drift of the North Pacific; -- called also Kuro-Siwo, or Black Stream, in allusion
• PHASING CURRENT
  The momentary current between two alternating-current generators when juxtaposed in parallel and not agreeing exactly in phase or period.
• ALTERNATING CURRENT
  A current which periodically changes or reverses its direction of flow.