Floating /(?)/

Float·ing

Floating

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 Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island.

Phrases & Compounds
Floating anchor
a drag or sea anchor; drag sail.
Floating battery
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 bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau.
Floating cartilage
a cartilage which moves freely in the cavity of a joint, and often interferes with the functions of the latter.
Floating dam
An anchored dam.
Floating derrick
a derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc.
Floating dock
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.
Floating heart
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
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
See Wandering liver, under Wandering.
Floating pier
a landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the tide.
Floating ribs
the lower or posterior ribs which are not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two pairs.
Floating screed
a strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat.
Floating threads
threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.

Floating

n.
  1. Floating threads. See Floating threads, above. (Weaving)
  2. The second coat of three-coat plastering.
  3. The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also fattening, plumping, and laying out.