Floating ppl. a.

[f. as prec. + -ING².]

  1.  That floats (in various senses of the vb.). Floating leaf: see quot. 1790.

1600.  Hakluyt, Voy., III. 415. We supposed that these floting weeds did grow vpon some rocke vnder the water.

1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 256. The River is crouded on both Sides with a prodigious Number of Barks in several Rows, which contain an infinite Quantity of People, and make a Kind of floating City.

1781.  Cowper, Anti-Thetyphthora, 72.

1790.  Martyn, Lang. Bot., Floating leaf, Folium natans, lying flat on the surface of the water.

1837.  W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, II. 215. Snake river was frozen hard: as they proceeded, the ice became broken and floating.

1877.  Bennett, trans. Thomé’s Bot., iii. 73. The floating primary root of Trapa, which germinates while lying on the ground, at first ascends, and remains in that direction.

1878.  A. Barlow, Weaving, 104. In some kinds of figured weaving these floating threads are cut off, as may be noticed in figured shawls.

  b.  Of water: Overflowing, flooding; also, fluctuating, ebbing and flowing.

1578.  Lyte, Dodoens, III. vi. 321. This … groweth … in the brinkes of diches and floting waters.

1712–4.  Pope, Rape Lock, II. 47.

  2.  Comm. Of a cargo: At sea. Of trade, rates, etc.: Of or pertaining to cargoes at sea.

1848.  Arnould, Mar. Insur. (1866), I. I. iii. 106. When a floating cargo (i. e. a cargo at sea) is sold in London, it is generally on what are called ‘The London Floating Conditions.’

1883.  Daily News, 19 Sept., 6/6. Floating terms, at 44s. 6d. to 48s. 6d. Ibid. (1887), 21 Nov., 2/7. A quiet tone has prevailed throughout the floating trade to-day.

  3.  Having little, or comparatively no attachment; disconnected. Floating ribs (see quot. 1860).

1806.  Med. Jrnl., XV. 273. This layer presently appears to consist of a number of torn floating membranes, like portions of spiders’ web, hanging pendulous in the uterus.

1831.  R. Knox, Cloquet’s Anat., 31. Twelfth Rib. This rib is so short, that it seems to lose itself in the flesh, whenche it has been called the floating rib.

1840.  F. D. Bennett, Whaling Voy., I. 175. Many long and elegantly-branched tentacles, which are retractile, and can either be concealed or spread out loose and floating.

1860.  Mayne, Expos. Lex., Floating Ribs. Anat. Term applied to the last two of the false ribs, whose anterior extremities are not connected to the rest or to each other.

1889.  J. M. Duncan, Lect. Dis. Women, xxxiii. (ed. 4), 273. There are achings in cases of what is called floating kidney.

  4.  Not fixed or settled in a definite state or place; fluctuating, variable, unstable.

1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 388. That imagination which is in beasts is more firme and staied then that which is in men, because our mindes are more floting & vnstable.

1678.  Life Edw. Black Pr., in Harl. Misc. (1809), III. 151. His Floating-hands, called The Companions, or Adventurers.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., I. iv. (1695), 26. There is scarce any one so floating and superficial in his Understanding, who hath not some reverenced Propositions, which are to him the Principles on which he bottoms his Reasonings.

1793.  Burke, Conduct of the Minority, Wks. 1842, I. 625. They have that floating multitude which goes with events, and which suffers the loss or gain of a battle to decide its opinions of right and wrong.

1838.  Prescott, Ferd. & Is. (1846), III. xiv. 120. Machiavelli represented at that time the Florentine republic at the papal court, and his correspondence teems with as many floating rumors and speculations as a modern gazette.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 302/1. The floating population of the city [Bombay] is very numerous, and consists chiefly of Arabs, Goa-Portuguese, Persians, and Parsees, but includes sailors belonging to nearly every country of the world.

  5.  Finance. Not fixed or permanently invested; unfunded. (See CAPITAL, B 3 c; DEBT 4 e.)

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), II. 180. Manual labour, the sweat of the brow, is at present the floating capital of France.

1845.  McCulloch, Taxation, III. ii. (1852), 448. They [countries] would necessarily experience more or less difficulty in obtaining suplies upon loan, according to variations in the amount of floating capital, and the facilities for its profitable employment in industrious undertakings.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wealth, Wks. (Bohn), II. 71. A thousand million of pounds sterling are said to compose the floating money of commerce.

1893.  Daily News, 15 March, 6/3. It appears that all the floating debt is secured by collateral securities.

  6.  In various technical combs., as floating anchor (see quot.); floating battery, a vessel fitted up and used as a battery; floating clough, (see quot.); floating collimator (see quot.); floating dock, a large (usually rectangular) vessel made with water-tight compartments, and used as a graving-dock; floating harbour (see quot.); floating lever (see quot.); floating meadow (see quot.); floating pier, a landing-stage which rises and falls with the tide; floating plate, Stereotyping (see quot.); floating rail = FLOAT sb. 13; floating reef Austral. (see quot.).

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 884/1. *Floating-anchor. (Nautical.) A frame of spars and sails dragging overboard, to lessen the drift of a ship to leeward in a gale.

1695.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3073/2. They … have made also two *Floating Batteries with 20 Pieces of Cannon upon them.

1803.  Naval Chron., IX. 495. She [the Mercury] is fitted as a floating-battery for the defence of Guernsey, and will sail soon.

1841.  Brees, Gloss. Civ. Engin., *Floating Clough, a moveable dam or machine, used for scouring out channels or inlets.

1833.  Herschel, Astron., ii. 95. The *floating collimator … is nothing more than a small telescope furnished with a cross-wire in its focus, and fastened horizontally, or as nearly so as may be, on a flat iron float, which is made to swim on mercury.

1866.  E. Clark, in Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., XXV. 296. *Floating docks were originally built of timber.

1841.  Brees, Gloss. Civ. Engin., *Floating Harbour, a breakwater, composed of large masses of timber, anchored and chained together … which rise and fall with the tide.

1884.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 348/2. *Floating Lever. (Railway.) A name applied to the horizontal brake-levers beneath the car-body.

1813.  T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, Gloss., *Floating or flowing meadows—Those that are laid up in ridges, with water carriages on each ridge and drains between.

1855.  H. Clarke, Dict., *Floating-pier, a tide-stage.

1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 1177 (s.v. Stereotype Printing). Each mould … is laid, with the impression downwards, upon a flat cast-iron plate, called the *floating-plate.

1892.  Melbourne Age, 31 Dec., 10/3. Horse and Spring Cart, *floating rail, and Harness.

1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 611. *Floating Reef—Applied often to masses of bed-rock which are found displaced and lying among the alluvial detritus.