A kind of custard.
1771. At dinner we had a floating island.—Franklin, ‘Works’ (1887), iv. 415. (N.E.D.)
a. 1821. She came home with her head full of the splendour and finery she had witnessed; and I have ever since been bothered to death, with the din of new carpets, new sideboards, new dresses, floating islands, obelisks, and whip-syllabubs.—Connecticut Herald: J. T. Buckingham, ‘Miscellanies,’ i. 65 (1822).
1860. The marvellous floating island,—name suggestive of all that is romantic in the imaginations of youthful palates.—O. W. Holmes, ‘Elsie Venner’ (1891), p. 110. (N.E.D.) (Italics in the original.)
