floating
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
floating
adj 1: borne up by or suspended in a liquid; "the ship is still
floating"; "floating logs"; "floating seaweed"
2: continually changing especially as from one abode or
occupation to another; "a drifting double-dealer"; "the
floating population"; "vagrant hippies of the sixties" [syn:
{aimless}, {drifting}, {floating}, {vagabond}, {vagrant}]
3: inclined to move or be moved about; "a floating crap game"
4: (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"
5: not definitely committed to a party or policy; "floating
voters"
n 1: the act of someone who floats on the water [syn:
{floating}, {natation}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Float \Float\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Floated}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Floating}.] [OE. flotien, flotten, AS. flotian to float,
swim, fr. fle['o]tan. See {Float}, n.]
1. To rest on the surface of any fluid; to swim; to be buoyed
up.
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The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground.
--Milton.
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Three blustering nights, borne by the southern
blast,
I floated. --Dryden.
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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.
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They stretch their broad plumes and float upon the
wind. --Pope.
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There seems a floating whisper on the hills.
--Byron.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Floating \Float"ing\, a.
1. Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a
wreck; floating motes in the air.
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2. Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating
ribs in man and some other animals.
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3. Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as,
floating capital; a floating debt.
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Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been
withdrawn in great masses from the island.
--Macaulay.
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{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.
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from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
119 Moby Thesaurus words for "floating":
Australian crawl, Hare system, PR, absentee voting, adrift, afloat,
aquaplaning, aquatics, awash, backstroke, ballot-box stuffing,
balneation, bathe, bathing, breaststroke, buoyant, butterfly,
card voting, circumforaneous, clear, colonization, coming out,
crawl, cumulative system, cumulative voting, curtain raiser, debut,
discursive, divagatory, diving, dog paddle, drifting,
election fraud, embarkation, embarkment, errant, fin,
first appearance, fishtail, flapper, flipper, flitting, floatable,
floaty, flotation, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, free,
fugitive, gadding, gypsy-like, gypsyish, inaugural address,
inauguration, induction, initiation, installation, installment,
introduction, landloping, launching, list system, loose,
maiden speech, meandering, migrational, migratory, natation, nomad,
nomadic, opener, plural system, preferential system,
preferential voting, preliminary, proportional representation,
proxy voting, rambling, ranging, repeating, rickety, roaming,
roving, shaky, shifting, sidestroke, single system,
single transferrable vote, single-member district, straggling,
straying, strolling, supernatant, surfboarding, surfing, swim,
swimming, traipsing, transient, transitory, transmigratory,
treading water, unanchored, unbound, undone, unfastened, unfixed,
unstuck, untied, unveiling, vagabond, vagrant, vote, voting,
voting machine, wading, wandering, water-borne, waterskiing
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