The Collaborative International Dictionary
Floating \Float"ing\, a.
Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air.
Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man and some other animals.
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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 Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island.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.
A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau.
(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.
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.
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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.
An anchored dam.
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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.
Usage examples of "floating threads".
They glittered by the light of the floating threads, but his eyes glittered more dangerously still.
It was very hard to do, waiting for the floating threads to coil about her.
All he asked of her, as yet, was a touch on the hand or on the lips--and that she should let him go on lying there through the long warm hours, while a black-bird's song throbbed like a fountain, and the summer wind stirred in the trees, and close by, between the nearest branches and the brim of his tilted hat, a slight white figure gathered up all the floating threads of joy.