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Floater

//ˈfləʊtə// noun, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who floats.; A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.

    "Great God of VVaters [i.e., Neptune], vvhoſe extended Svvay / Is next to his, vvhom Heav'n and Earth obey: / Let not the Suit of Venus thee diſpleaſe, / Pity the Floaters on th' Ionian Seas."

  2. 2
    an insurance policy covering loss of movable property (e.g. jewelry) regardless of its location wordnet
  3. 3
    A person who floats.; A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.; A corpse floating in a body of water. slang

    "A dock worker saw him floating against a dock pier and called the police. Condition of the body they thought a floater that had been hit by a boat and cut by the prop."

  4. 4
    an object that floats or is capable of floating wordnet
  5. 5
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; A person who frequently changes where they live; a drifter, a vagrant. figuratively
Show 29 more definitions
  1. 6
    a swimmer who floats in the water wordnet
  2. 7
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; A person who frequently changes employment. figuratively
  3. 8
    a voter who votes illegally at different polling places in the same election wordnet
  4. 9
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; An employee of an organization who does not have fixed tasks to do but fills in wherever needed, usually when someone else is away; also, a short-term employee; a temporary, a temp. figuratively

    "'The murdered girl was working for us, for the department.' / 'A floater?' / 'No. Permanent; warranty contract; the lot.'"

  5. 10
    an employee who is reassigned from job to job as needed wordnet
  6. 11
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; An "extra" (male) guest at a party who is asked by the host to entertain the other (often female) guests. figuratively
  7. 12
    a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support wordnet
  8. 13
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; A person who attaches themselves to a group of people, and who repeatedly shows up at group activities even though this is undesired by the group; a hanger-on. figuratively, slang
  9. 14
    a debt instrument with a variable interest rate tied to some other interest rate (e.g. the rate paid by T-bills) wordnet
  10. 15
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; A voter who shifts their allegiance from one political party to another, especially (US) one whose vote can be illegally purchased. figuratively
  11. 16
    spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in the vitreous humor and lens wordnet
  12. 17
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; A person who votes illegally in various electoral districts or polling places, either under a false voter registration or under the name of a properly registered voter who has not yet voted. US, figuratively
  13. 18
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; A person, such as a delegate to a convention or a member of a legislature, who represents an irregular constituency, such as one formed by a union of the voters of two counties neither of which has a number sufficient to be allowed one (or an extra) representative of its own. US, figuratively
  14. 19
    A person who floats.; A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.; A player not affiliated with a team. figuratively
  15. 20
    A thing which floats.; A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.; A river mussel (genus Anodonta).
  16. 21
    A thing which floats.; A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.; A small suet dumpling put into soup.

    "About an hour later a ration lorry found them, and the men were woken again, this time to a good meal of bully stew and floaters – suet dumplings – followed by cold rice pudding with jam."

  17. 22
    A thing which floats.; A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.; A piece of faeces which floats. vulgar

    "He left a floater in the toilet."

  18. 23
    A thing which floats.; A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.; A threadlike speck in the visual field which seems to move, possibly caused by degeneration of the vitreous humour of the eye.
  19. 24
    A thing which floats.; A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.; A ball that moves lightly through the air, as if floating; specifically (basketball), an early layup taken by a player moving towards the rim where, upon release, the ball floats in the air over the top of a defender before dropping softly into the hoop.

    "The floater is a high arcing shot that is commonly used to get the ball over taller defenders in the paint."

  20. 25
    A thing which floats.; A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.; Ellipsis of pie floater (“a meat pie served floating in a bowl of thick green pea soup”). Australia, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
  21. 26
    A thing which floats.; A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.; A waterproof sandal. India

    "Replace your leather sandals with rubber slippers, sandals or floaters. They don't soak water well and why in this world would you want to spoil your expensive leather footwear in puddles?"

  22. 27
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; A mistake or misstep; a faux pas. dated, figuratively, slang

    "Suddenly, for no reason, in the middle of the night, or even in the middle of the jolliest party, she would remember an ancient floater—just like that, à propos de bottes—would remember and be overcome by a feeling of self-reproach and retrospective shame. […] One could do one's best; but one could never really persuade oneself that the floater hadn't happened. Imagination might struggle to annihilate the odious memory; but it never had power to win a decisive victory."

  23. 28
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; Clipping of floating rate bond. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, figuratively
  24. 29
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; An insurance policy covering movable property at more than one location or which may be in transit. figuratively
  25. 30
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; A book circulated between prisoners which is not part of the official prison library. figuratively, slang

    "One prisoner came to me and asked if I had anything to read. As I hadn’t, he said he would bring me some reading. The next day he arrived with two serious books under his shirt. ‘Floaters’ [i.e. unofficially circulated books] had also come into the prison: you could either find them in the library, or they would be given to someone else to keep away from the screws—they were never openly visible."

  26. 31
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; A manoeuvre in which a surfer transitions above the unbroken face of a wave on to the lip, or on top of the breaking section of the wave. figuratively
  27. 32
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; A spinning delivery of the ball that travels in a high arched path. figuratively
  28. 33
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; A coin which does not spin when thrown in the air. figuratively

    "[Rule] 477.(1) The boxer for a game of triple penny two-up, or a floor manager, may declare a spin invalid if the spin is a floater. […] [Rule 477.](6) In this section—"floater" means a spin in which at least 1 of the coins does not turn over in the air at least once."

  29. 34
    A thing which floats.; A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.; A criminal sentence which is suspended so long as the convicted person leaves an area. US, figuratively

    "["]Suppose I should tell you that there's a permanent order in the sheriff's office, left there by the old sheriff, that if I ever use your name or admit I'm your wife I'll get a floater out of the county and out of the state. Does that tempt you?" / "Tempt me to do what?" / "To get me floated and take all the money.""

Etymology

From float + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Compare Old English flota (“boat, ship", also "sailor, pirate”, literally “floater”), whence Middle English flote (“a fleet of ships", also, "a float, flotation device”).

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