floater
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
floater
n 1: spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in
the vitreous humor and lens; "floaters seem to drift
through the field of vision" [syn: {musca volitans},
{muscae volitantes}, {floater}, {spots}]
2: a debt instrument with a variable interest rate tied to some
other interest rate (e.g. the rate paid by T-bills)
3: a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means
of support [syn: {vagrant}, {drifter}, {floater}, {vagabond}]
4: an employee who is reassigned from job to job as needed
5: a voter who votes illegally at different polling places in
the same election
6: a swimmer who floats in the water
7: an object that floats or is capable of floating
8: an insurance policy covering loss of movable property (e.g.
jewelry) regardless of its location [syn: {floater},
{floating policy}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Floater \Float"er\, n.
1. One who floats or swims.
[1913 Webster]
2. A float for indicating the height of a liquid surface.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Politics)
(a) A voter who shifts from party to party, esp. one whose
vote is purchasable. [U. S.]
(b) A person, as a delegate to a convention or a member of
a legislature, who represents an irregular
constituency, as one formed by a union of the voters
of two counties neither of which has a number
sufficient to be allowed a (or an extra)
representative of its own. [U. S.]
(c) A person who votes illegally in various polling places
or election districts, either under false registration
made by himself or under the name of some properly
registered person who has not already voted. [U. S.]
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
47 Moby Thesaurus words for "floater":
Ahasuerus, Ancient Mariner, Argonaut, Flying Dutchman, Goliard,
Odysseus, Oisin, Ossian, Ulysses, ballot-box stuffer, balloter,
bird of passage, bum, derelict, drifter, elector, fraudulent voter,
gad, gadabout, go-about, hobo, itinerant, mover, peregrinator,
peregrine, peripatetic, proxy, rambler, registered voter, repeater,
roamer, rolling stone, rover, runabout, straggler, street arab,
stroller, strolling player, tramp, troubadour, vag, vagrant,
visitant, voter, wanderer, wandering minstrel, wandering scholar
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