Float"ing , n. The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also fattening, plumping, and laying out.
Float"ing (?), n.
1. (Weaving) Floating threads. See Floating threads, above.
2. The second coat of three-coat plastering. Knight.
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 Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island.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.
(a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor
of plank, supported wholly by the
water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau. (b) (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.
(c) 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. (d)
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. (a) An anchored dam. (b) 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.
Hear it pronounced