Float Definition
flōt
floated, floating, floats
verb
floated, floating, floats
To cause to stay on the surface of a liquid or suspended near the surface.
Webster's New World
To stay on the surface of a liquid or suspended near the surface.
Webster's New World
To bring to the surface and cause to stay there.
Webster's New World
To move or drift about vaguely and without purpose.
Idle thoughts floating through the mind.
Webster's New World
To drift or move slowly or easily on water, in air, etc.
Leaves floating down from the trees.
Webster's New World
noun
floats
The number of shares of a security that are publicly owned and traded.
American Heritage
Something that floats, as:
American Heritage
Anything that stays, or causes something else to stay, on the surface of a liquid or suspended near the surface.
Webster's New World
An air-filled sac or structure that aids in the flotation of an aquatic organism.
American Heritage Medicine
A low, flat, decorated vehicle for carrying exhibits, tableaux, etc. in a parade.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
- swim-bladder
- air-bladder
- ice-cream float
- ice-cream-soda
- plasterer's float
- levitation
- jetsam
- flotsam
- caisson
- camel
- buoyancy
- raft
- pontoon
- outrigger
- buoy
Origin of Float
-
From Middle English floten, from Old English flotian (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *flutōną (“to float”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-, *plew- (“to float, swim, fly”). Cognate with Middle Low German vloten, vlotten (“to float, swim”), Middle Dutch vloten, Old Norse flota, Icelandic fljóta, Old English flēotan (“to float, swim”), Ancient Greek πλέω (pleō), Lithuanian plaukti, Russian плавать (plavatʹ).
From Wiktionary
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Middle English floten from Old English flotian pleu- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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