What is "floating island"

Floating \Float"ing\, a.

1. Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air.

2. Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man and some other animals.

3. Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as, floating capital; a floating debt. Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island. --Macaulay. Floating anchor (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail. Floating battery (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the hulls of ships, chiefly for the defense of a coast or the bombardment of a place. Floating bridge.

   1. A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau.

   2. (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one projecting beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys; -- used for carrying troops over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of a fort.

   3. A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by means of chains which are anchored on each side of a stream, and pass over wheels on the vessel, the wheels being driven by stream power.

   4. The landing platform of a ferry dock. Floating cartilage (Med.), a cartilage which moves freely in the cavity of a joint, and often interferes with the functions of the latter. Floating dam.

      1. An anchored dam.

      2. A caisson used as a gate for a dry dock.

         Floating derrick, a derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc.

         Floating dock. (Naut.) See under Dock.

         Floating harbor, a breakwater of cages or booms, anchored and fastened together, and used as a protection to ships riding at anchor to leeward.
         --Knight.

         Floating heart (Bot.), a small aquatic plant ( Limnanthemum lacunosum) whose heart-shaped leaves float on the water of American ponds.

         Floating island, a dish for dessert, consisting of custard with floating masses of whipped cream or white of eggs.

         Floating kidney. (Med.) See Wandering kidney, under Wandering.

         Floating light, a light shown at the masthead of a vessel moored over sunken rocks, shoals, etc., to warn mariners of danger; a light-ship; also, a light erected on a buoy or floating stage.

         Floating liver. (Med.) See Wandering liver, under Wandering.

         Floating pier, a landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the tide.

         Floating ribs (Anat.), the lower or posterior ribs which are not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two pairs.

         Floating screed (Plastering), a strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat.

         Floating threads (Weaving), threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.

n. A French cold dessert consisting of an "island" of meringue, made of egg whites and sugar, floating in a "sea" of custard.

A floating island is a mass of floating aquatic plants, mud, and peat ranging in thickness from a few inches to several feet. Floating islands are a common natural phenomenon that are found in many parts of the world. They exist less commonly as a man-made phenomenon. Floating islands are generally found on marshlands, lakes, and similar wetland locations, and can be many hectares in size.

A floating island is a dessert of French origin, consisting of meringue floating on crème anglaise (a vanilla custard). The meringues are prepared from whipped egg whites, sugar and vanilla extract then quickly poached. The crème anglaise is prepared with the egg yolks, vanilla, and hot milk, briefly cooked.

There is some confusion about the name. In French cuisine, the terms œufs à la neige ("eggs in snow") and île flottante (floating island) are sometimes used interchangeably; the latter is the source of the English name. The difference between the two dishes is that île flottante sometimes contains islands made of "alternate layers of alcohol-soaked dessert biscuits and jam."

Floating Island is a 1930 children's novel written and illustrated by Anne Parrish. A China-doll family's shipwreck and adventure in the Floating Island are told in the novel in the simple and colloquial style .

A floating island is a mass of floating aquatic plants, mud, and peat.

Floating island may also refer to:

• Floating island (fiction), the concept in fiction
• Floating island (dessert), a French dessert
• The Floating Island (Head novel), a 1673 novel by Richard Head
• Floating Island (novel), a 1930 novel by Anne Parrish
• The Floating Island, a 2006 novel by Elizabeth Haydon

A floating island in fiction is a landmass that floats in a body of water (such as Vadanis in The Guardian Cycle of novels), or in the sky (such as Angel Island from Sonic The Hedgehog), when it could be considered a flying island, such as the flying continent of Laputa in Castle in the Sky. They can be free-floating, may be directed by the whim of their inhabitants, or others may be permanently anchored.

Floating islands have been found in literature since Homer's Odyssey, written near the end of the 8th century BC. They reappear in Pliny the Elder's Natural History of the 1st century AD, as the island of Laputa in Jonathan Swift's 1726 book Gulliver's Travels, and many times in more recent works.

Floating islands may be held aloft by lighter-than-air gases, such as helium or hydrogen; a lodestone, magnet, crystal, or other mineral; magic; levitation technology such as anti-gravity, propellers or balloons.