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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Floating \Float"ing\, adjective
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 Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island. --Macaulay.
{Floating anchor} (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail.
{Floating battery} (Mil.), 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) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See {Bateau}. (b) (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one projecting beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys; -- used for carrying troops over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of a fort. (c) A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by means of chains which are anchored on each side of a stream, and pass over wheels on the vessel, the wheels being driven by stream power. (d) The landing platform of a ferry dock.
{Floating cartilage} (Med.), a cartilage which moves freely in the cavity of a joint, and often interferes with the functions of the latter.
{Floating dam}. (a) An anchored dam. (b) A caisson used as a gate for a dry dock.
{Floating derrick}, a derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc.
{Floating dock}. (Naut.) 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. --Knight.
{Floating heart} (Bot.), 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}. (Med.) 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}. (Med.) See {Wandering liver}, under {Wandering}.
{Floating pier}, a landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the tide.
{Floating ribs} (Anat.), the lower or posterior ribs which are not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two pairs.
{Floating screed} (Plastering), a strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat.
{Floating threads} (Weaving), threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Floating \Float"ing\, noun
1. (Weaving) Floating threads. See {Floating threads}, above.
2. The second coat of three-coat plastering. --Knight.
3. The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also {fattening}, {plumping}, and {laying out}. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Float \Float\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Floated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Floating}.] [OE. flotien, flotten, AS. flotian to float, swim, fr. fle['o]tan. See {Float}, noun]
1. To rest on the surface of any fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up.
The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground. --Milton.
Three blustering nights, borne by the southern blast, I floated. --Dryden.
2. To move quietly or gently on the water, as a raft; to drift along; to move or glide without effort or impulse on the surface of a fluid, or through the air.
They stretch their broad plumes and float upon the wind. --Pope.
There seems a floating whisper on the hills. --Byron.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
floating
adjective
1: continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another; "a drifting double-dealer"; "the floating population"; "vagrant hippies of the sixties" [syn: {aimless}, {drifting}, {vagabond}, {vagrant}]
2: inclined to move or be moved about; "a floating crap game"
3: (of a part of the body) not firmly connected; movable or out of normal position; "floating ribs are not connected with the sternum"; "a floating kidney" [syn: {floating(a)}]
4: not definitely committed to a party or policy; "floating voters" [syn: {floating(a)}]
5: borne up by or suspended in a liquid; "the ship is still floating"; "floating logs"; "floating seaweed"
noun: the act of someone who floats on the water
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
119 Moby Thesaurus words for "floating": Australian crawl, Hare system, PR, absentee voting, adrift, afloat, aquaplaning, aquatics, awash, backstroke, ballot-box stuffing, balneation, bathe, bathing, breaststroke, buoyant, butterfly, card voting, circumforaneous, clear, colonization, coming out, crawl, cumulative system, cumulative voting, curtain raiser, debut, discursive, divagatory, diving, dog paddle, drifting, election fraud, embarkation, embarkment, errant, fin, first appearance, fishtail, flapper, flipper, flitting, floatable, floaty, flotation, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, free, fugitive, gadding, gypsy-like, gypsyish, inaugural address, inauguration, induction, initiation, installation, installment, introduction, landloping, launching, list system, loose, maiden speech, meandering, migrational, migratory, natation, nomad, nomadic, opener, plural system, preferential system, preferential voting, preliminary, proportional representation, proxy voting, rambling, ranging, repeating, rickety, roaming, roving, shaky, shifting, sidestroke, single system, single transferrable vote, single-member district, straggling, straying, strolling, supernatant, surfboarding, surfing, swim, swimming, traipsing, transient, transitory, transmigratory, treading water, unanchored, unbound, undone, unfastened, unfixed, unstuck, untied, unveiling, vagabond, vagrant, vote, voting, voting machine, wading, wandering, water-borne, waterskiing
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