Also 7 boy, bouy. [In senses 1–3 app. adapted from some foreign source: cf. Sp. boyar to float (f. boya BUOY sb.), and see BUOYANT; in sense 4 from the sb.]
† 1. intr. To rise to, or float on, the surface of a liquid; to rise, swell (as the sea). Obs.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. vii. 60. The Sea, with such a storme … would haue buoy’d vp And quench’d the Stelled fires.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrimes, II. 1617. Our Wine wee saued which boyed to the shoare.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 73. Which will not allow an heavy body left to itself within a flowsom one that is lighter, to buoy up.
† b. fig. Obs.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 463. Rising merit will buoy up at last. Ibid. (1716–8), in Lady M. W. Montague’s Lett., I. viii. 24. Folly … will buoy up … in spite of all our art to keep it down.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VI. 251. When the great Soul buoys up to this high Point.
2. trans. To keep from sinking (in a fluid), to keep afloat; transf. to keep up, support, sustain. (Usually with up.)
1651. T. Barker, Art Angling (1653), 8. The menow may swim … being boyed up with a Cork or Quill.
1774. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 490. It is as hard to sink a cork, as to buoy up a lump of lead.
1782. A. Monro, Compar. Anat. (ed. 3), 3. The bat and flying squirrel … have wings to buoy themselves up in the air.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., II. v. (1849), 113. Thus buoyed up, he floated on the waves.
b. To raise to the surface of a liquid; to bring afloat (e.g., a sunken ship).
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Cust. Country, I. i. I will descend to thee, And buoy thee up.
1667. Lond. Gaz., No. 196/3. She sunk, with a Lighter…. Great care is taking to Buoy them up, with all the speed that may be.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 297. They … buoy up some particles of the iron & carry it to the surface.
3. fig. To keep up, keep from sinking, support, sustain, (persons, courage, hope, heart, spirits, etc.). (Usually with up.)
1645. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., IV. I. 136. Lord Byron buoy’d up with continual hopes.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 821. Brave to buoy the State.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, Mem. Geo. III. (1845), I. ix. 135. France had been buoyed up by the ambition … of Spain.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, xliii. The hopes which had been … buoying me up.
b. To raise, lift, cause to rise (the heart, spirits, etc.). (Usually with up.)
1652. J. Wadsworth, trans. Sandoval’s Civ. Wars Spain, 181. They ought to … bouy them up out of that gulf of miserie whereinto they were plunged.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 262. Hearts sunk down are not to be boyed up.
a. 1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. VIII. 86. Buoyed up to the highest point of practical vigour.
a. 1850. Rossetti, Dante & Circle, I. (1874), 185. The spirits of thy life depart Daily to heaven with her—they so are buoy’d With their desire.
4. To furnish or mark with a buoy or buoys; to mark as with a buoy (rarely with out).
1596. Raleigh, Discov. Guiana, 36. Which shold [= shoal] John Douglas boyed and bekonned for them before.
1707. Lond. Gaz., No. 4350/3. They have … lately buoy’d a new Chanel … with 3 Black Buoys.
1710. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 49. The buoying out of Formby Channell.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 215. The captain sounded and buoyed the bar.
1883. Dk. Argyll, Sp. Ho. Lords, 19 July. Rocks on the [Scotch] west coast are not sufficiently buoyed and beaconed.
