Float
[fləʊt] or [flot]
Definition
(noun.) something that floats on the surface of water.
(noun.) a hand tool with a flat face used for smoothing and finishing the surface of plaster or cement or stucco.
(noun.) an elaborate display mounted on a platform carried by a truck (or pulled by a truck) in a procession or parade.
(noun.) the number of shares outstanding and available for trading by the public.
(noun.) the time interval between the deposit of a check in a bank and its payment.
(verb.) convert from a fixed point notation to a floating point notation; 'float data'.
(verb.) allow (currencies) to fluctuate; 'The government floated the ruble for a few months'.
(verb.) make the surface of level or smooth; 'float the plaster'.
(verb.) put into the water; 'float a ship'.
(verb.) move lightly, as if suspended; 'The dancer floated across the stage'.
(verb.) set afloat; 'He floated the logs down the river'; 'The boy floated his toy boat on the pond'.
(verb.) be in motion due to some air or water current; 'The leaves were blowing in the wind'; 'the boat drifted on the lake'; 'The sailboat was adrift on the open sea'; 'the shipwrecked boat drifted away from the shore'.
(verb.) be afloat either on or below a liquid surface and not sink to the bottom.
(verb.) circulate or discuss tentatively; test the waters with; 'The Republicans are floating the idea of a tax reform'.
Typist: Naomi--From WordNet
Definition
(v. i.) 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.
(v. i.) A mass of timber or boards fastened together, and conveyed down a stream by the current; a raft.
(v. i.) The hollow, metallic ball of a self-acting faucet, which floats upon the water in a cistern or boiler.
(v. i.) The cork or quill used in angling, to support the bait line, and indicate the bite of a fish.
(v. i.) Anything used to buoy up whatever is liable to sink; an inflated bag or pillow used by persons learning to swim; a life preserver.
(v. i.) A float board. See Float board (below).
(v. i.) A contrivance for affording a copious stream of water to the heated surface of an object of large bulk, as an anvil or die.
(v. i.) The act of flowing; flux; flow.
(v. i.) A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one foot deep.
(v. i.) The trowel or tool with which the floated coat of plastering is leveled and smoothed.
(v. i.) A polishing block used in marble working; a runner.
(v. i.) A single-cut file for smoothing; a tool used by shoemakers for rasping off pegs inside a shoe.
(v. i.) A coal cart.
(v. i.) The sea; a wave. See Flote, n.
(n.) To rest on the surface of any fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up.
(n.) 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.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) To flood; to overflow; to cover with water.
(v. t.) To pass over and level the surface of with a float while the plastering is kept wet.
(v. t.) To support and sustain the credit of, as a commercial scheme or a joint-stock company, so as to enable it to go into, or continue in, operation.
Editor: Matt
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Swim, WAFT, be buoyed up.
v. a. Buoy up, bear up, keep afloat, bear on the surface.
n. [1]. Raft, floating mass.[2]. Buoy.[3]. Float-board.
Inputed by Harlow
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Swim, spread, prevail
ANT:Sink, drown, die, founder, vanish
Checked by Hillel
Definition
v.i. to swim on a liquid: to be buoyed up: to move lightly and irregularly: to circulate as a rumour: to drift about aimlessly.—v.t. to cause to swim: to cover with water: to set agoing.—n. anything swimming on water: a raft: the cork or quill on a fishing-line: a plasterer's trowel.—adj. Float′able.—ns. Float′age Flot′age the floating capacity of a thing: anything that floats; Float′-board a board on the rim of an undershot water-wheel on which the water acts and moves the wheel; Float′er.—adj. Float′ing swimming: not fixed: circulating.—n. action of the verb float: the spreading of plaster on the surface of walls.—ns. Float′ing-batt′ery a vessel or hulk heavily armed used in the defence of harbours or in attacks on marine fortresses; Float′ing-bridge a bridge of rafts or beams of timber lying on the surface of the water; Float′ing-dock (see Dock); Float′ing-is′land an aggregation of driftwood roots &c. capable of bearing soil floated out from a river delta or the like; Float′ing-light a ship bearing a light moored on sunken rocks to warn seamen of danger.—adv. Float′ingly.—n. Float′-stone a porous sponge-like variety of quartz so light as to float for a while on water.—adj. Float′y.
Typist: Pearl
Examples
- I urged my companions to prepare for the wreck of our little skiff, and to bind themselves to some oar or spar which might suffice to float them. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- The red one in all probability cannot swim, I said, since there is scarce enough water in all their domains to float the tiniest craft. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- Mrs. Hatch and her friends seemed to float together outside the bounds of time and space. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- We, however, lay to until the morning, fearing to encounter in the dark those large loose masses which float about after the breaking up of the ice. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- The water will soon float your feet to the surface. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- I remember how I seemed to float, then, down the melancholy glory of that track upon the sea, away into the world of dreams. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- We see staid families, with prayer-book and beads, enter the gondola dressed in their Sunday best, and float away to church. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Already one or two kept constantly floating down, amber and golden in the low slanting sun-rays. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- These discoveries, added to the long observed fact of coal oil floating on streams in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, led to the search for its natural source. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Floating in deep blue space, it watched her unclouded. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The function of the floating weight is to automatically keep the stylus in close engagement with the record, thus insuring accuracy of reproduction. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Artificial floating islands have been formed by placing lake mud on rafts of wicker-work covered with reeds. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- He sees some object that's in his way of business, floating. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- But it was like a bubble floating in the darkness. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The haggard head floated up the dark staircase, and softly descended nearer to the floor outside the outer door of the chambers. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- It floated up and produced a violent effect on the mucous membrane. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- A long sigh floated past them on the still waters, like the melancholy cry of a bird, and died away sadly in the distance. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Patches of nasty ooze floated, yellow-white, on the dead surface of the water. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- A number of schemes had floated in men's minds for the attainment of that end. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Bishop then betook himself up-stairs, and the other magnates gradually floated up after him until there was no one left below but Mr Merdle. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- On the placid waters of the landlocked harbor floated a great ship, and on the beach a small boat was drawn up. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Sometimes soap refuses to form a lather and instead cakes and floats as a scum on the top of the water; this is not the fault of the soap but of the water. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- Boil lightly for fifteen minutes, allow to cool, and then skim off the wax which floats on the surface. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- These qualities render it peculiarly serviceable for the stopping of vessels of different kinds, for floats, buoys, swimming-belts or jackets, artificial limbs, etc. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The ball is set in a basin of mercury, where it floats. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Several attempts have been made to remedy this defect, and to produce what is called feathering floats, every one of which will act against the water at right angles. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- Diggory, having returned to the brink of the pool, observed that the small upper hatches or floats were withdrawn. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- The great lantern, Fig. 45, is carried by a vertical shaft, which terminates at its lower end in a hollow drum, which latter floats in a bath of mercury. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
Typist: Tito