BUOYANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does buoyant mean? 

• BUOYANT (adjective)
  The adjective BUOYANT has 2 senses:

1. tending to float on a liquid or rise in air or gas

2. characterized by liveliness and lightheartedness

  Familiarity information: BUOYANT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUOYANT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tending to float on a liquid or rise in air or gas

Synonyms:

buoyant; floaty

Context example:

a floaty scarf

Similar:

light (of comparatively little physical weight or density)

Derivation:

buoy (keep afloat)

buoy (float on the surface of water)

buoyancy (the property of something weightless and insubstantial)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by liveliness and lightheartedness

Synonyms:

buoyant; chirpy; perky

Context example:

a perky little widow in her 70s

Similar:

cheerful (being full of or promoting cheer; having or showing good spirits)

Derivation:

buoyancy (irrepressible liveliness and good spirit)

buoyancy (cheerfulness that bubbles to the surface)

 Context examples 

Because warmer water is more buoyant, says the study, it rises above cooler water, creating what the scientists describe as an "upside-down river" flowing underneath the layers of ice.

(Scientists describe how 'upside-down rivers' of warm water break Antarctica's ice shelf, Wikinews)

Your habitual expression in those days, Jane, was a thoughtful look; not despondent, for you were not sickly; but not buoyant, for you had little hope, and no actual pleasure.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The coracle—as I had ample reason to know before I was done with her—was a very safe boat for a person of my height and weight, both buoyant and clever in a seaway; but she was the most cross-grained, lop-sided craft to manage.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Till morning dawned I was tossed on a buoyant but unquiet sea, where billows of trouble rolled under surges of joy.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)