FLOAT, n.

1. That which swims or is borne on water; as, a float of weeds and rushes. But particularly, a body or collection of timber, boards or planks, fastened together and conveyed down a stream; a raft. [The latter word is more generally used in the United States.]
2. The cork or quill used on an angling line, to support it and discover the bite of a fish. – Encyc. Walton.
3. The act of flowing; flux; flood; the primary sense, but obsolete. – Hooker.
4. A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one deep. – Mortimer.
5. A wave. [French flot; L. fluctus.]

1. To be borne or sustained on the surface of a fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up; not to sink; not to be aground. We say, the water is so shallow, the ship will not float.
2. To move or be conveyed on water; to swim. The raft floats flown the river. Three blustering nights, borne by the southern blast / I floated. – Dryden.
3. To be buoyed up and moved or conveyed in a fluid, as in air. They stretch their plumes and float upon the wind. Pope.
4. To move with a light irregular course. Qu. Locke.

1. To cause to pass by swimming; to cause to be conveyed on water. The tide floated the ship into the harbor.
2. To flood; to inundate; to overflow; to cover with water. Proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands. Dryden.

1. Anything which floats or rests on the surface of a fluid, as to sustain weight, or to indicate the height of the surface, or mark the place of, something.
   
   
   Specifically: (a)
2. 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.

3. To cause to float; to cause to rest or move on the surface of a fluid; as, the tide floated the ship into the harbor.
   
   

   Had floated that bell on the Inchcape rock. Southey.

4. A float board. See Float board (below).
5. 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.

6. To flood; to overflow; to cover with water.
   
   

   Proud Pactolus floats the fruitful lands. Dryden.

7. A contrivance for affording a copious stream of water to the heated surface of an object of large bulk, as an anvil or die.
   
   
   Knight.
8. To pass over and level the surface of with a float while the plastering is kept wet.
9. The act of flowing; flux; flow.
   
   
   [Obs.] Bacon.
10. To support and sustain the credit of, as a commercial scheme or a joint-stock company, so as to enable it to go into, or continue in, operation.
11. A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one foot deep.
    
    
    [Obs.] Mortimer.
12. The trowel or tool with which the floated coat of plastering is leveled and smoothed.
13. A polishing block used in marble working; a runner.
    
    
    Knight.
14. A single-cut file for smoothing; a tool used by shoemakers for rasping off pegs inside a shoe.
15. A coal cart.
    
    
    [Eng.] Simmonds.
16. The sea; a wave. See Flote, n.
    
    

    Float board, one of the boards fixed radially to the rim of an undershot water wheel or of a steamer's paddle wheel; -- a vane. -- Float case (Naut.), a caisson used for lifting a ship. -- Float copper or gold (Mining), fine particles of metallic copper or of gold suspended in water, and thus liable to be lost. -- Float ore, water-worn particles of ore; fragments of vein material found on the surface, away from the vein outcrop. Raymond. -- Float stone (Arch.), a siliceous stone used to rub stonework or brickwork to a smooth surface. -- Float valve, a valve or cock acted upon by a float. See Float, 1 (b).