FLOATING

floating

(adjective) borne up by or suspended in a liquid; “the ship is still floating”; “floating logs”; “floating seaweed”

floating

(adjective) not definitely committed to a party or policy; “floating voters”

floating

(adjective) (of a part of the body) not firmly connected; movable or out of normal position; “floating ribs are not connected with the sternum”; “a floating kidney”

floating

(adjective) inclined to move or be moved about; “a floating crap game”

aimless, drifting, floating, vagabond, vagrant

(adjective) continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another; “a drifting double-dealer”; “the floating population”; “vagrant hippies of the sixties”

floating, natation

(noun) the act of someone who floats on the water

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Adjective

floating (not comparable)

That floats or float.

Not fixed in position, opinion etc.; free to move or drift.

(linguistics, of a tone) that is not attached to any consonant or vowel within its morpheme.

Verb

floating

present participle of float

Noun

floating (plural floatings)

The motion of something that floats.

(in the plural) Material that floats in a liquid.

The spreading of plaster on the surface of walls.

Anagrams

• antigolf

Source: Wiktionary


Float"ing, a.

1. Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air.

2. Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man and some other animals.

3. Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as, floating capital; a floating debt. Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island. Macaulay. Floating anchor (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail.

– Floating battery (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the hulls of ships, chiefly for the defense of a coast or the bombardment of a place.

– Floating bridge. (a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau. (b) (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one projecting beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys;

– used for carrying troops over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of a fort. (c) A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by means of chains which are anchored on each side of a stream, and pass over wheels on the vessel, the wheels being driven by stream power. (d) The landing platform of a ferry dock.

– Floating cartilage (Med.), a cartilage which moves freely in the cavity of a joint, and often interferes with the functions of the latter.

– Floating dam. (a) An anchored dam. (b) A caisson used as a gate for a dry dock.

– Floating derrick, a derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc.

– Floating dock. (Naut.) See under Dock.

– Floating harbor, a breakwater of cages or booms, anchored and fastened together, and used as a protection to ships riding at anchor to leeward. Knight.

– Floating heart (Bot.), a small aquatic plant (Limnanthemum lacunosum) whose heart-shaped leaves float on the water of American ponds.

– Floating island, a dish for dessert, consisting of custard with floating masses of whipped cream or white of eggs.

– Floating kidney. (Med.) See Wandering kidney, under Wandering.

– Floating light, a light shown at the masthead of a vessel moored over sunken rocks, shoals, etc., to warn mariners of danger; a light- ship; also, a light erected on a buoy or floating stage.

– Floating liver. (Med.) See Wandering liver, under Wandering.

– Floating pier, a landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the tide.

– Floating ribs (Anat.), the lower or posterior ribs which are not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two pairs.

– Floating screed (Plastering), a strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat.

– Floating threads (Weaving), threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.

Float"ing, n.

1. (Weaving)

Definition: Floating threads. See Floating threads, above.

2. The second coat of three-coat plastering. Knight.

FLOAT

Float, n.Etym: [OE. flote ship, boat, fleet, AS. flota ship, fr. fleĂłtan to float; akin to D. vloot fleet, G. floss raft, Icel. floti float, raft, fleet, Sw. flotta. sq. root 84. See Fleet, v. i., and cf. Flotilla, Flotsam, Plover.]

1. Anything which floats or rests on the surface of a fluid, as to sustain weight, or to indicate the height of the surface, or mark the place of, something. Specifically: (a) A mass of timber or boards fastened together, and conveyed down a stream by the current; a raft. (b) The hollow, metallic ball of a self-acting faucet, which floats upon the water in a cistern or boiler. (c) The cork or quill used in angling, to support the bait line, and indicate the bite of a fish. (d) Anything used to buoy up whatever is liable to sink; an inflated bag or pillow used by persons learning to swim; a life preserver. This reform bill . . . had been used as a float by the conservative ministry. J. P. Peters.

2. A float board. See Float board (below).

3. (Tempering)

Definition: A contrivance for affording a copious stream of water to the heated surface of an object of large bulk, as an anvil or die. Knight.

4. The act of flowing; flux; flow. [Obs.] Bacon.

5. A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one foot deep. [Obs.] Mortimer.

6. (Plastering)

Definition: The trowel or tool with which the floated coat of plastering is leveled and smoothed.

7. A polishing block used in marble working; a runner. Knight.

8. A single-cut file for smoothing; a tool used by shoemakers for rasping off pegs inside a shoe.

9. A coal cart. [Eng.] Simmonds.

10. The sea; a wave. See Flote, n. Float board, one of the boards fixed radially to the rim of an undershot water wheel or of a steamer's paddle wheel; -- a vane.

– Float case (Naut.), a caisson used for lifting a ship.

– Float copper or gold (Mining), fine particles of metallic copper or of gold suspended in water, and thus liable to be lost.

– Float ore, water-worn particles of ore; fragments of vein material found on the surface, away from the vein outcrop. Raymond.

– Float stone (Arch.), a siliceous stone used to rub stonework or brickwork to a smooth surface.

– Float valve, a valve or cock acted upon by a float. See Float, 1 (b).

Float, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Floated; p. pr. & vb. n. Floating.] Etym: [OE. flotien, flotten, AS. flotian to float, swim, fr. fleĂłtan. See Float, n.]

1. To rest on the surface of any fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up. The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground. Milton. Three blustering nights, borne by the southern blast, I floated. Dryden.

2. To move quietly or gently on the water, as a raft; to drift along; to move or glide without effort or impulse on the surface of a fluid, or through the air. They stretch their broad plumes and float upon the wind. Pope. There seems a floating whisper on the hills. Byron.

Float, v. t.

1. To cause to float; to cause to rest or move on the surface of a fluid; as, the tide floated the ship into the harbor. Had floated that bell on the Inchcape rock. Southey.

2. To flood; to overflow; to cover with water. Proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands. Dryden.

3. (Plastering)

Definition: To pass over and level the surface of with a float while the plastering is kept wet.

4. To support and sustain the credit of, as a commercial scheme or a joint-stock company, so as to enable

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

24 December 2024

INTUITIVELY

(adverb) in an intuitive manner; “inventors seem to have chosen intuitively a combination of explosive and aggressive sounds as warning signals to be used on automobiles”


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Coffee Trivia

The average annual yield from one coffee tree is the equivalent of 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of roasted coffee. It takes about 4,000 hand-picked green coffee beans to make a pound of coffee.

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