Definitions for: Floating


[adj] borne up by or suspended in a liquid; "the ship is still floating"; "floating logs"; "floating seaweed"
[adj] inclined to move or be moved about; "a floating crap game"
[adj] hanging or moving freely in air; "floating thistledown"; "floating banners"
[adj] continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another; "a drifting double-dealer"; "the floating population"; "vagrant hippies of the sixties"



Webster (1913) Definition: 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withdrawn in great masses from the island.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) Floating threads. See Floating threads, above.

2. The second coat of three-coat plastering. --Knight.


Float"ing, n.
The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by
placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also
fattening, plumping, and laying out.

Synonyms: afloat(p), aimless, drifting, mobile, moving, unsettled, vagabond, vagrant

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