float

A buoyant device used to support something in water or another liquid.

Noun

  1. A buoyant device used to support something in water or another liquid.
    • Attach the float and the weight to the fishing line, above the hook.
    • 'What you need are frogs,' said the veteran. 'Fish them at night. There's nothing like them on big cork floats.' - 1983, The Fisherman Who Laughed, page 40:
  2. A mass of timber or boards fastened together, and conveyed down a stream by the current; a raft.
  3. A float board.
  4. A tool similar to a rasp, used in various trades.
  5. A sort of trowel used for finishing concrete surfaces or smoothing plaster.
    • When pouring a new driveway, you can use a two-by-four as a float.
  6. An elaborately decorated trailer or vehicle, intended for display in a parade or pageant.
    • That float covered in roses is very pretty.
  7. A floating toy made of foam, used in swimming pools.
  8. A small vehicle used for local deliveries, especially in the term milk float.
    • As soon as the skies brightened and plum-blossom was out, Paul drove off in the milkman's heavy float up to Willey Farm. - 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 7, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […],...
  9. Funds committed to be paid but not yet paid.
    • Our bank does a nightly sweep of accounts, to adjust the float so we stay within our reserves limit.
  10. An offering of shares in a company (or units in a trust) to members of the public, normally followed by a listing on a stock exchange.
    • You don't actually need a broker to buy shares in a float when a company is about to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. - 2006, “Buying shares in a float”, in Australian Securities and Investments Commission...
  11. The total amount of checks/cheques or other drafts written against a bank account but not yet cleared and charged against the account.
    • No sir, your current float is not taken into account, when assets are legally garnished.
  12. Premiums taken in but not yet paid out.
    • We make a lot of interest from our nightly float.

Origin

From Middle English flote, from Old English flota (“sailor, boat”), from Proto-West Germanic *flotō, from Proto-Germanic *flutô, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-.

Forms

floats

Synonyms

initial public offering

Derived

Carley float clean float coke float dead man's float dirty float float glass float-on float-off floatplane float switch float tank float tube float-zone silicon free float grout float hard float ice cream float ice-float information float managed float peg float root beer float soft float

Verb

  1. To be supported by a fluid of greater density (than the object).
    • Helium balloons float in air, while air-filled balloons don't.

    Synonyms: ride

    1. To be supported by a liquid of greater density, such that part (of the object or substance) remains above the surface.

      • The boat floated on the water.
      • The oil floated on the vinegar.

      Synonyms: ride swim

  2. To cause something to be suspended in a fluid of greater density.
    • to float a boat
  3. To be capable of floating.
    • That boat doesn't float.
    • Oil floats on vinegar.
  4. To move in a particular direction with the liquid in which one is floating.
    • I’d love to just float downstream.
  5. To drift or wander aimlessly.
    • I’m not sure where they went... they're floating around here somewhere.
    • Images from my childhood floated through my mind.
  6. To drift gently through the air.
    • The balloon floated off into the distance.

    Synonyms: stream

  7. To cause to drift gently through the air, to waft.
    • Over the tree-tops I float thee a song, / Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad fields and the prairies wide, / Over the dense-pack’d cities all and the teeming wharves and ways, / I float this carol with...

    Synonyms: stream

  8. To move in a fluid manner.
    • The dancer floated gracefully around the stage.
  9. To circulate.
    • There's a rumour floating around the office that Jan is pregnant.
  10. To remain airborne, without touching down, for an excessive length of time during landing, due to excessive airspeed during the landing flare.
  11. Of an idea or scheme, to be viable.
    • That's a daft idea... it'll never float.
  12. To propose (an idea) for consideration.
    • I floated the idea of free ice cream on Fridays, but no one was interested.
    • Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, also floated the idea of turning Canada into a U.S. state, said he would demand far higher defense spending from NATO allies and promised to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to...

Origin

From Middle English floten, from Old English flotian (“to float”), from Proto-West Germanic *flotōn, from Proto-Germanic *flutōną (“to float”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-, *plew- (“to float, swim, fly”). Compare flow, fleet.

Forms

floats floating floated

Derived

afloat armfloat defloat firefloat floatability floatable floatant float around float at floatboard floatel floater floatie floatless float like a butterfly floatline floatmaker floatovoltaic floatovoltaics floatsome float someone's boat floatstick floatstone float with the stream