Floaty

//ˈfləʊti// adj, noun, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Tending to float on a liquid or to rise in air or a gas; buoyant.

    "[S]ome fevv buttes of beare being flotie they got, vvhich though it had lien ſix moneths vnder vvater vvas very good, […]"

  2. 2
    Tending to float on a liquid or to rise in air or a gas; buoyant.; Of a ship: having a shallow draft (the depth from the waterline to the bottom of a vessel's hull), and thus drawing less (that is, floating higher in) water. archaic

    "I then told my Lord of Eſſex that mine vvas a floaty ſhip and vvell appointed for that ſervice; […]"

  3. 3
    Of music: light and relaxing. figuratively

    "All the floaty music in the world could not disguise my grunts [during a massage] as I clenched my teeth and curled my toes to fight the pain."

  4. 4
    Of an object: light and flimsy or soft; specifically, of a dress: lightweight, so as to rise away from the body when the wearer is moving. figuratively

    "O here is a Bed / Shrinkproofer than that, / A floatier, boatier / Bed than that!"

  5. 5
    Of a person: feeling calm, dreamy, happy, etc., as if floating in the air. figuratively

    "[A]s you stand on the steps of the Castle Green in this strange place, you feel quite floaty. This you are told is the scene of the Merthyr riots; and you feel still floatier as you body forth before your eyes a picture like the following— […]"

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    Of speech or writing: overly complicated or elaborate; flowery, grandiloquent. figuratively

    "[William Butler] Yeats divests himself of his floatier fin-de-siècle rhetoric to discover a hard plain speech both properly twentieth century and pre-nineteenth century."

Adjective
  1. 1
    tending to float on a liquid or rise in air or gas wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    A particle of food, etc., found floating in liquid. informal

    "Why don't you stop slathering millions of things on your face, and lather up with my gentle Swan? It's the loveliest, pure, mild floatie—why, it'll get you clean as a baby!"

  2. 2
    A lilo (inflatable air mattress) or similar object that floats on water and can be lain or sat on. US, informal

    "I am going to begin with a confession that seems to me to be startling less for its content than for the sheer number of similar stories that I have heard related among so many of my successful women friends. Prevalent as it is, it always surfaces abruptly, bobbing awkwardly as a lone yellow floatie in the public pool of our conversations."

  3. 3
    Synonym of armband (“one of a pair of inflatable plastic bands, normally worn on the upper arms, to help the wearer (often a child) float in water and learn to swim”). US, in-plural, informal

    "As an escaped megalodon swims close to a busy beach, we see humanity at its most chompable: chubby kids in floaties, doofuses on pontoons, some dork in a tight Speedo rolling around in one of those big inflatable Zorb balls. But alas, the movie is a gore-free PG-13, and though CGI has long since replaced animatronics as the monster movie's weapon of choice, one thing hasn’t changed: giant killer fish still look like they’re made of rubber."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From float (noun or verb) + -y (suffix meaning ‘inclined to’ forming adjectives). Compare Middle English floti, floty (“of a place: well supplied with water”).

Etymology 2

From float (noun) + -y (suffix forming diminutive nouns).

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: floaty