Word.ws English Dictionary

over the transom

over the transom prepositional phrase: of a work submitted for publication, unsolicited.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Of a work submitted for publication, unsolicited.
    • All the over-the-transom articles are handled by our interns.
    • Only one piece that came in over the transom appears in this issue.
  2. (idiomatic) Meeting a deadline by delivery after the day of the deadline but before opening of business the following business day.
    • They worked into the night and sent an associate to make an over-the-transom filing.

Origin of over the transom

A transom is a lintel or crosspiece over a door; likely an alteration of Latin trānstrum (“crossbeam”). Refers to the idea of a writer tossing a manuscript through the open window over the door of the publisher's office. Alternatively, a "transom" is the nautical term for the back of a small boat. Something which "came in over the transom" would have suddenly (and presumably, surprisingly) entered through the "back door" of the craft, metaphorically.

Questions about over the transom

What does over the transom mean?
Over the transom means of a work submitted for publication, unsolicited.
What part of speech is over the transom?
Over the transom is a prepositional phrase.

Words near over the transom in the dictionary

  1. over the odds
  2. over the rainbow
  3. over the river
  4. over the river and through the woods
  5. over the top
  6. over the transom
  7. over the way
  8. over the wicket
  9. over the wire
  10. over there
  11. over time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: over the transom (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “over the transom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/over_the_transom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.