DCHP-1 Online

log-jam

• 1a n. Lumbering a massing together of logs, as in a river drive, as a result of some obstruction to their forward progress.

  See also: jam ((n.)) (def. 2)  

  • 1889  Just below there was a huge log-jam which must await the next freshet before it could be released.
  • 1965  Quite a number of these tough, two-fisted characters died unnoticed, either by falling into rivers or being caught in log jams.

• 1b n. Figurative use.

  • 1966  "Once we get back the regular rhythm I'd say the log jam among the general cargo vessels will start to disappear sometime next week."

• 2 n. North a protective framework of logs intended to keep ice from damaging a ship's hull.

  • 1908  To-day there arc no forests within miles from the rocky wastes of Churchill, but at that time, the country was timbered to the water's edge, and during the ebb tide the men constructed a log jam or ice-break around the ship.