FLOATINGS
Noun
floatings
plural of floating
Source: Wiktionary
FLOATING
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 Floating capital had been withdrawn in great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.
fleótan 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. fleótan. 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