| English Dictionary |
FLOATING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does floating mean?
• FLOATING (noun)
The noun FLOATING has 1 sense:
1. the act of someone who floats on the water
Familiarity information: FLOATING used as a noun is very rare.
• FLOATING (adjective)
The adjective FLOATING has 5 senses:
1. borne up by or suspended in a liquid
2. continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another
3. inclined to move or be moved about
4. (of a part of the body) not firmly connected; movable or out of normal position
5. not definitely committed to a party or policy
Familiarity information: FLOATING used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of someone who floats on the water
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Synonyms:
floating; natation
Hypernyms ("floating" is a kind of...):
swim; swimming (the act of swimming)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "floating"):
dead-man's float; prone float (a floating position with the face down and arms stretched forward)
Derivation:
float (be afloat either on or below a liquid surface and not sink to the bottom)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Borne up by or suspended in a liquid
Context example:
floating seaweed
Similar:
afloat (borne on the water; floating)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another
Synonyms:
aimless; drifting; floating; vagabond; vagrant
Context example:
vagrant hippies of the sixties
Similar:
unsettled (not settled or established)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Inclined to move or be moved about
Context example:
a floating crap game
Similar:
mobile (moving or capable of moving readily (especially from place to place))
Sense 4
Meaning:
(of a part of the body) not firmly connected; movable or out of normal position
Context example:
a floating kidney
Similar:
unfixed (not firmly placed or set or fastened)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Not definitely committed to a party or policy
Context example:
floating voters
Similar:
uncommitted (not bound or pledged)
Context examples
As stellar fusion continued, its resulting UV light began to rip apart the free-floating hydrogen atoms, stripping away their electrons in a process called ionization.
(Astronomers detect ancient signal from first stars in universe, National Science Foundation)
Nearly all glacier melt occurs on the underside of the glacier beyond the grounding line, on the section floating on seawater.
(West Antarctic Glacier loss appears unstoppable, NASA)
The collapse broke off almost all of the floating portions of the glaciers, leaving the parts that are grounded on bedrock.
(Wind, Warm Water Revved Up Melting Antarctic Glaciers, NASA)
The extra weight of the water will push down on the floating ice, causing it to sink a bit further into the sea.
(Surface lakes cause Antarctic ice shelves to ‘flex’, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
In the study, the researchers first tagged free-floating tumor cells in pigs with a special nanoparticle that contains magnetic properties. (In other words, they attached this magnetic molecule to the tumor cells.)
(Magnetic Wires May Soon Be Used in Your Veins to Detect Cancer Earlier, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
WISEA 1147 is one of the few free-floating worlds where astronomers can begin to point to its likely origins as a brown dwarf and not a planet.
(Lone Planetary-Mass Object Found in Family of Stars, NASA)
For a day and a night I traveled through the air, and on the morning of the second day I awoke and found the balloon floating over a strange and beautiful country.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
The Ross Ice Shelf, a part of the Antarctic Ice Sheet that is floating on the ocean, measures several hundred meters thick and covers more than 480,000 square kilometers, approximately the size of Spain.
(Study in Antarctic waters reveals why Ross Ice Shelf melts in summer, National Science Foundation)
The world's largest collection of ocean garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and California, is now bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined.
(Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch Growing Rapidly, Study Finds, VOA)
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