Float sb.

Forms: 1 flot, 3–7 flote, (4–6 flot, 5 floote, floit, floyt(e, 7 flotte), 6–7 floate, 6– float. [Several distinct formations, ultimately from the Teut. root fleut-, flaut-, flot- (see FLEET v.), seem to have coalesced. 1. OE. flot str. neut. (dat. flote) action or state of floating; the formally equivalent ON. flot has also the sense ‘scum, grease’ (see FLOT). 2. OE. flota wk. masc. = ON. flote ship, boat, fleet. 3. In many of its senses the sb. appears to have been a new formation on FLOAT v. 4. In some senses it may be an adoption of, or influenced by, the F. flotte (OF. flote and flot), verbal nouns f. flotter to FLOAT.

  Cognate words, with senses corresponding to some of those of float, are OHG. flôȝ masc. (MHG. vlôȝ masc., mod.G. floss neut.) raft, buoy, fishing-net, also stream:—OTeut. *flauto-z; and OHG. floȝȝa (MHG. vloȝȝe, mod.Ger flosse) fem., fin, swimming-bladder, cork float:—OTeut. *flotâ; an OE. *flotu, corresponding to the latter, may possibly be the source of sense 8.]

  I.  The action or state of floating or flowing.

  1.  The action of floating or † swimming. Now rare. † Formerly also, the condition of floating or of being on the water; esp. in phrase on (rarely at) float = AFLOAT. † Upon the float: floating on the stream; also fig. in an unsettled condition.

  With on or at float cf. the synonymous ON. á floti, F. à flot (OF. a flote). For instances of on flote before 15th c., see AFLOAT.

a. 1000.  Elene, 226 (Gr.). Ongan þa ofstlice eorla mengu to flote fysan.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 161.

1497.  Ld. Treas. Accts. Scot. (1877), I. 378. To ger hir [a ship] com on floit.

1570–6.  Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1826), 117. So farre foorth as (a ship, being on flote at the full sea) a man might cast a short hatchet out of the vessell unto the banke.

1647.  N. Bacon, Discourse of the Laws & Government of England, II. xxiv. (1682), 110. When both Winds unil Currents are uncertain, to ride at flote, till they can discern the most commodious Haven to Winter in.

1652.  Ashmole, Theat. Chem., Prol., 1. Past Ages have like Rivers conveied downe to us, (upon the floate,) the more light, and Sophisticall pieces of Learning.

1693.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 241. The next spring tide two fourth rates will also be putt on float.

1761.  Chron., in Ann. Reg., 68/1. The Richmond soon afterwards got on float.

1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), I. xvi. 147. Our ideas being perpetually upon the float, leave room for another representation to slip in such aims as bear an unfavourable aspect, hiding themselves, or taking shelter under others more reputable.

1817.  Keats, Calidore, 19.

  b.  transf. Buoyant motion through the air.

1807.  W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., V. 553/2. The teacher of gesticulation must prescribe the more vehement forms of expression, must bid his pupil saw the air, like Icarus, and stamp the earth, like Poseidon, if he means to produce the desirable float of arm, and radiation of leg.

  † 2.  The flux or flood of the tide. lit. and fig. At float, in float: at high water; in quots. fig.

1594.  Gesta Grayorum, in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz. (1807), III. 317.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., ix. § 4. Our trust in the Almighty is, that with us contentions are now at their highest float.

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 139. It appeared plainely to bee in the King’s Nature, and not out of his Necessity, hee beeing now in Float for Treasure.

1633.  Ford, Love’s Sacr., II. iii.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. xxi. 141. Men of his profession have as well an ebbe of riot, as a flote of fortune.

1797.  Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl (1813), V. 182. Rest indeed she had so completely enjoyed, that she rose at six, with all her animal spirits in the fullest float of exhilaration.

  † 3.  A wave, billow, lit. and fig. Also, the sea.

c. 1477.  Caxton, Jason, 114. In trauersing the wawes & flotes of the see so impetuously that I thinke better that he is perisshed thenne not.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 1304. A man which did swimme continually in the flotes of inconstancie.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 234.

1655.  Jennings, trans. Elise, 2. The mutinous flotes which beat the flanks of this great Bark.

  † b.  fig. Agitation of mind. Obs.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 368/2. [They] haue not onely those flotes which the faithfull haue, when they feele them selues narrowly besette, but are hornemadde.

  † 4.  An overflow from a river, etc.; a flood; lit. and fig. On (a) float: in flood, flooded; = AFLOAT 3; also fig. Obs.

1577.  Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 317. Where a little before men went on foote, all then was on flote, Boats, Barks and Ships were used.

1590.  T. Watson, Eglogue Death Sir F. Walsingham, 46, Poems (Arb.), 153.

1627.  May, Lucan, IV. 149.

1664.  Floddan F., iii. 28.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, V. iii. A very trifling accident set all his passions again on float.

1763.  N. Whitaker, Serm., 30 June (1767), 37. How soon may we expect to see the church of Christ fall into decay, and a float of vice and error overspread our Jerusalem?

  transf.  1523.  Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 335.

  † b.  A side-stream or back-water.

1629.  H. Burton, Babel no Bethel, Ep. Ded., 4. A continuall current, that so merrily driues the Popish mills about, and sets ours in a back water or float.

  † II.  5. The liquor in a dye-vat. Obs.

a. 1500.  E. E. Misc. (Warton Club), 88. When the madere is in flotte, breke hit smalle that there be no ballys. Ibid. Tylle that the flote that is in the lede begynne to sethe.

  III.  A floating object.

  6.  A mass of weeds, ice, etc., floating on the surface of water.

1600.  Hakluyt, Voy., III. 415. For the space of fifty leagues before we came hither we alwayes found swimming on the sea certaine flotes of weedes of a ships length, and of the bredth of two ships.

1692.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, clxxxix. 158. They took it at first for a Ship, and as it came Nearer, for a Boat only; but it prov’d at last to be no more then a Float of Weeds and Rushes.

1827.  Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 108. Here, while the houses stood as a bank on either side, it [the river] came crashing and roaring up the street in full career, casting forth, within a few yards of the cross, floats of ice like millstones.

1845.  Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 412. The heads of the sedges, reeds, and other plants of the float are now cut off and laid upon its surface.

  7.  a. A raft or raft-like construction.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Chron. ii. 16. And so wyll we hewe y^e tymber vpon Libanus, as moch as thou nedest, and wyll brynge it by flotes in the See vnto Iapho, from whence thou mayest brynge it vp to Ierusalem.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. 189. A little before the Bark blew up, he saw a small Float on the Water, and as it appeared, a Man on it, making towards his Ship.

1844.  Hull Dock Act, 89. To remove any floats or rafts of timber.

  b.  A flat-bottomed boat. Also a boat-load. In quot. 1890 = fire-float. See also fishing-float.

1557.  North, trans. Guevara’s Diall Pr., 260 a/1. If thy wife Dynsilla chanced well of the Flote that came oute of Cetin with salte, oyle, and honye.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. liv. § 10. 280. An of-spring (saith he) of the Britaines embarked in Flotes, arriued in this Land.

1774.  J. Bryant, A New System; or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology, II. 197. The Patriarch and his family were inclosed in an ark, or covered float; wherein there was only one window of a cubit in dimensions.

1776.  G. Semple, A Treatise on Building in Water, 34. We drudged all we could come at away, as clear as we could from the Back of the Dike, and immediately filled up the Vacancy we so made, by throwing in several Floats of Clay, which united with the Clay of our Dam.

1882.  Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, Fowler in Irel., ii. 25. The punts, or ‘floats’ as they are there [Wexford] called, are about fifteen feet long, and twenty-eight inches wide amidships.

1890.  Times, 25 April, 10/2. The four river floats were directed to be brought from their moorings to the fire.

  8.  A floating appliance for supporting something in the water.

  a.  The cork or quill used to support a baited line, showing by its movement when a fish bites.

a. 1450.  Treat. Fysshynge w. Angle (1883), 16. Ye schall make ȝowr flotes in þys wise.

a. 1609.  Dennys, Secrets of Angling, I., in Arb., Garner, I. 153.

1867.  F. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 9. The floats should be proportioned to the depth and strength of the stream, and should be also so weighted as to sail steadily along, carrying the hook just touching the bottom without the float being sucked under by the whirl of the stream.

  b.  A cork or other light substance used to support a fishing-net, etc., in the water.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 110. The Corke hath the thickeste barke…. Of his barke, are made … Floates for fishing nettes.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 12. Herring-net Floats … Mackerel-net Floats.

  c.  A hollow or inflated part or organ that supports an animal in the water. Hence used in Florida as a name for the genus Velella of medusæ.

1832.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 108. This ‘common oceanic snail’ derives its buoyancy from an admirably contrived float, which has enabled it not only to disperse itself so universally, but to become an active agent in disseminating other species which attach themselves, or their ova, to its shell.

1888.  Riverside Nat. Hist., I. 107. It [Velella] is commonly called in Florida, where it is sometimes very abundant, the ‘float.’

  d.  In various other applications (see quots.).

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 883/2. Float.… 11. An inflated bag or pillow to sustain a person in the water.

1880.  F. G. Mather, A Day with the Ottawa Chantier-men, in Lippincott’s Mag., XXV. Feb., 143/1. Cribs are formed of about 20 sticks of timber fastened between two logs called ‘floats.’

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4), 45. Respirator: this affords ease to the swimmer to breathe freely; a small nipple in the mouth with flexible tube supported by a float.

  9.  a. A hollow metallic ball, a piece of whinstone, etc., used to regulate the water-level in a boiler or tank.

1752.  Smeaton, in Phil. Trans. (1754), XLVII. 436. What is peculiar to this engine, is a float within the receiver, composed of a light ball of copper, which is not loose in it, but fastened to the end of an arm.

1856.  J. Bourne, Catech. Steam Engine, iv. (ed. 4), 154. The float is usually formed of stone or iron, and is so counterbalanced as to make its operation the same as if it were a buoy of timber.

  b.  The small piece of ivory on the surface of the mercury in the cistern of a barometer.

1855.  in Ogilvie, Suppl.

  10.  Theatr. pl. The footlights; collect. sing. the row of footlights.

1862.  Dickens, Let., 24 Jan. (1882), III. 212. Pauline trotting about in front of the float, invoking the orchestra with a limp pocket-handkerchief, is a notion that makes goose-flesh of my back.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 291/1. Patent gas floats, for theatrical purposes. Ibid., 291/2. The range of Argand burners composing the float are arranged upside down.

1884.  L. Wingfield, Realism behind the Footlights, in Fortn. Rev., XXXV. April, 476. That which might any day be seen in the street became a marvel, because it moved behind the floats.

  11.  One of the boards of an undershot water-wheel or of a paddle-wheel; a float-board.

1611.  Florio, Ala … the flot of a Water-mill-wheele.

1731.  Beighton, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 10. The Force on the Floats 18 Ct. 40 lb.

1806.  Trevithick, Let., in Life (1872), I. 327. I wish to know the size of the floats on the wheel, and the velocity you think they should be driven.

1856.  J. Bourne, Catech. Steam Engine, viii. (ed. 4), 323. The paddle floats are usually made either of elm or pine.

  IV.  Something broad, level, and shallow.

  12.  Brewing. A broad shallow vat used for cooling. ? Obs.

  [Cf. Du. vloot fem. a broad shallow wooden vessel for creaming mirk; also F. flotte, mentioned in 16th c. as part of a brewer’s stock-in-trade (Littré).]

1413.  E. E. Wills (1882), 22. Y be-quethe to the for-sede Ion, I graners, an a flot, an a planer.

1616.  Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 587. Other vesselles called flotes or coolers, and they be broad like vnto the fats, but only one foot deepe.

  13.  One of the wooden frames attached to the sides, front, or back of a wagon or cart to increase the carrying capacity.

1686.  Plot, Staffordsh., 354. A Cart that had its floats supported, with standards erected upon the ends of the Axles without the nathes of the wheels.

1887.  in Kent Gloss.

  14.  A low-bodied, crank-axled cart, used for carrying heavy articles, live stock, etc.

1866.  Daily Tel., 23 Feb., 3/4. The pikes and handles were removed in a float in the presence of a large crowd.

1891.  Sheffield Gloss., Suppl., Float, a deep cart … used for carrying pigs to market.

  b.  A platform on wheels, having a spectacular display arranged upon it, used in a procession.

1888.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 13 Sept., 2/4. A parade two miles long was composed of gay floats of all sorts of food-supplies.

1889.  Pall Mall G., 3 Oct., 6/3. A series of Floats representative of the Seven Centuries of the Mayoralty of London.

  † 15.  A unit of measurement for embanking work.

1707.  Mortimer, Husb., xiv. 309. They [banks] are measured by the Float or Floor, which is eighteen foot square and one deep.

  V.  In various senses corresponding with senses of FLOAT v.

  16.  A tool for ‘floating’ or making level.

  a.  Plastering. A trowel or rule for giving a plane surface to the plaster. Also float-rule.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 249. Floats, made of Wood, with handles to them.

1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 380. The materials for rough-casting are composed of fine gravel, with the earth washed cleanly out of it, and afterwards mixed with pure lime and water, till the entire together is of the consistence of a semi-fluid; it is then spread, or rather splashed, upon the wall by a float made of wood.

1853.  Dict. Arch. (Arch. Publ. Soc.), Float or Float Rule.

1876.  Rivingtons’ Notes Build. Constr., II. 400. The surface is then gone over with a smaller hand float.

  b.  A file having parallel, but not diagonal, rows of teeth; a single-cut file.

1750.  Blanckney, Naval Expositor, Float is an Instrument used by the Smiths to make their Work smooth, instead of a File.

1881.  Greener, Gun, 230. The two coils being joined … the barrels are heated, and the surplus metal removed with a float.

  c.  A tool used by bowyers, represented in the arms of the Bowyers’ Company. Obs. exc. Her.

  It is pictured as a flat plate with teeth on the under side and a handle at the top.

1823.  in Crabb, Techn. Dict., Float (Her.) an instrument used by the bowyers, which is borne in their arms.

1828–40.  Berry, Encycl. Her., I. U j. Bowyers … SR. on a chev. betw. three floats or, as many mullets of the first.

  d.  Various. (See quots.)

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 883/2. Float.… 10. A polishing-block used in marble-working. A runner. Ibid. Float.… 6. The serrated plate used by shoemakers for rasping off the ends of the pegs inside the boot or shoe.

  17.  A dock or place where vessels may float.

1840.  Evid. Hull Docks Commiss., 207 The old rivers at Bristol have been penned up, and they are now made floats.

1867.  in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.

  18.  One of the trenches used in ‘floating’ land.

1785.  W. Marshall, Midland Co. (1790), I. 278. The floats are trenches, receiving, by the means of floodgates … the waters of a river, brook, or rivulet, and conveying it along the upper margin, and upon the tops of the … swells of the field of improvement.

  19.  Tin-mining. (See quot.)

1778.  W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 137. [The blast] smelts the Tin [and] forces it out … into a moorstone trough six feet and a half high, and one foot wide, called the Float.

  20.  Geol. and Mining.

  a.  Loose rock or isolated masses of ore brought down by the action of water from their original formation. Also short for float-ore. Chiefly U.S.

1814.  Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana, 146. That kind of ore called floats, being formed in large irregular, but unconnected masses.

1880.  L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, VIII. v. 503. Through the rocky float in the hollows of the road the agate hoofs drummed, ringing like cups of steel; but without notice from any stranger.

1885.  W. Nall, in Trans. Cumb. & Westm. Antiq. Soc., VIII. I. 7. Lead ores were then classified by miners as float ore and shoad ore, or float and shoad, the float consisting of pieces which were much water worn, the shoad of pieces slightly, or not at all worn, though discoloured by exposure to the air.

  b.  (See quot.)

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, Float, a clean rent or fissure in strata unaccompanied by dislocation.

  21.  Weaving. The passing of weft-threads over a portion of the warp without being interwoven with it; also the group or mass of thread so passed.

1863.  J. Watson, Art Weaving, 141. A contrivance that would really prevent floats without any other drawback, would be a very good thing indeed for the power-loom.

1882.  Morris, Hopes & Fears Art, iv. 150–1. The latter eke out their gaudy feebleness with spots and ribs and long floats, and all kinds of meaningless tormenting of the web, till there is nothing to be learned from them save a warning.

  22.  U.S. (See quot.)

1837.  Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 92. Whenever a good tract of land is ready for sale, [they] cover it over with their floats, (warrants of the required habitation,) and thus put down competition.

  23.  U.S. A voter open to bribery. Cf. FLOATER.

1885.  Pall Mall G., 6 Nov., 2. Something like one-twelfth of the remaining voters are ‘floats’—that is, men who are looking for money.

  VI.  24. Comb., as float-ball, the ball of a ball-cock; float-barrel, ? a barrel used as a float for a fishing-net; float-bladder (see sense 8 c); float-board, one of the boards of an undershot water-wheel; one of the paddles of a paddle-wheel; float-bridge, a bridge of floats or rafts; float-case, = CAISSON 2 d; float-copper (see float-mineral); float-cut a., (of a file) cut in the manner of a float (see sense 16 b); float-fescue, a variety of fescue-grass (Festuca); float-file, a single-cut file; float fish (see quot.); float-fishing, fishing with a line and float (sense 8 a); float-foxtails, a variety of Alopecurus or fox-tail grass; float-gauge (see quot.); † float-glassed a., mirrored in the waves; float-gold (see float-mineral); float-light, a light-ship; float-line, a perpendicular line drawn from a float on the surface of a fluid to a specified point below the surface; float-mineral, fragments of ore detached and carried away by the action of water or by erosion; also, fine particles of metal which are detached in the process of stamping and do not readily settle in water; float-net, a net supported by floats; † float-ore¹, a kind of seaweed; float-ore², float-quartz (see float-mineral); float-shooter, one who goes shooting wild-fowl from a punt at night; float-valve (see quot.). Also FLOAT-BOAT, FLOAT-GRASS, FLOAT-STONE.

1824.  R. Stuart, Hist. Steam Engine, 156. Having a *float-ball o, which opens and shuts the valve p, communicating with the atmosphere.

1891.  Black, Donald Ross, I. 266. Despite the petroleum, and the heaping-on of lobster-creels and *float-barrels, the huts did not burn well.

1866.  Hartwig, Sea & Wond. xvii. (ed. 4), 354–5. On a large *float-bladder eight or nine inches long and three inches broad, whose transparent crystal shines in every shade of purple and azure, rises a vertical comb, the upper border of which sparkles with fiery red.

1719.  Desaguliers, Exp. Philos. (1744), II. 425. It is no Advantage to have a great number of *Float-Boards.

1858.  Lardner, Handbk. Nat. Phil., 135. Breast wheels.—This class of water wheels resemble in their form and construction the undershot wheel—the float-boards, however, being closer together.

1692.  Siege Lymerick, 14. This day was chiefly spent in removing our *Float-Bridge nearer the Town, and in raising a battery for the security of it.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 883/2. *Float-case. (Hydraulic Engineering.) A caisson to be attached to a submerged ship or other body, to float it by the expulsion of water and substitution of air in the case.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Float-Copper. Fine scales of metallic copper (especially produced by abrasion in stamping) which do not readily settle in water.

1888.  Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., *Float-Cut … a file having single lines of cutting teeth only.

1759.  B. Stillingfl., Grasses, in Misc. Tracts (1762), 387. The grass, which proved to be the *flote FESCUE with a mixture of the march BENT.

1834.  Brit. Husb., I. xxxiii. 520. In situations not quite so wet the flote fescue, flote fox-tails, and rough-stalked poa may be added.

1794.  W. Hutchinson, Hist. Cumberland, I. 27/1, note. After they have spawned they [Salmon] are called *float fish.

1883.  Fisheries Exhib. Catal., p. xxxiv. Some apparatus for *float-fishing.

1816–20.  T. Green, Univ. Herbal, I. 81. Alopecurus Geniculatus; *Flote Fox-tail Grass.

1834.  [See float-fescue above.]

1888.  Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Eng., *Float Gauge, a water gauge, where the height of water in a steam boiler is registered by means of a float.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., I. 5.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Float-gold, Pac[ific]. Fine particles of gold, which do not readily settle in water, and hence are liable to be lost in the ordinary stamp-mill process.

1890.  Pall Mall G., 28 May, 2/1. If, on the other hand, you crush too fine, you get ‘float gold.’

1819.  J. Hodgson, in J. Raine, Mem. (1857), I. 265. The *float-light in sight (a vessel anchored in the deeps), and called the Dudgeon Light, from the shoal on which it is placed.

1833.  Herschel, Astron., iii. 155. The difference of the two *float lines gives the height in question.

1647.  R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 31. A Retiarius, or Net-bearer, so named from a kind of *float Net, which he carried in his hand aiming to cast it about the head of the Sequutor, or pursuer.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 27 b. This *Floteore is now and then found naturally formed like rufs, combs, and such like: as if the sea would equall vs in apparel, as it resembleth the land for all sorts of liuing creatures.

1683.  Pettus, Fleta Min., I. (1686), 6. Also all float or Easy-flowing Oars that are Yellow, white, brown, blew, green, or gray, do contain near that proportion.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Float-ore. Water-worn particles of ore; fragments of vein-material found on the surface, away from the vein-outcrop. Ibid. (1872), Statist. Mines & Mining, 212. A section of country twenty miles long and eight miles wide is covered with *float quartz, some of which is reported very rich.

1882.  Sir R. Payne-Gallwey, Fowler in Irel., ii. 27. The supposed birds were, alas! two *float-shooters, lying low in their boats on the look-out for fowl, that were piping all around.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 885/2. *Float-valve. A valve actuated by a float so as to open or close the port, according to the level of the liquid in the chamber where the float is placed.