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Entry 6 senses · 2 variants Webster, 1913

Floating

/flōt'-ĭng/ approx. · Float·ing · IPA /ˈfloʊtɪŋ/
01 a. Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air.
  1. 1.
    Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air.
  2. 2.
    Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man and some other animals.
  3. 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 Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island.”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.
Phrases & compounds
Floating anchor — a drag or sea anchor; drag sail.
Floating battery — 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.
Floating cartilage — 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.
Floating derrick — a derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc.
Floating dock — 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.
Floating heart — 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 — 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 — See Wandering liver, under Wandering.
Floating pier — a landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the tide.
Floating ribs — the lower or posterior ribs which are not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two pairs.
Floating screed — a strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat.
Floating threads — threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.
02 n. Floating threads. See Floating threads, above.
  1. 1.
    Floating threads. See Floating threads, above.(Weaving)
  2. 2.
    The second coat of three-coat plastering.
  3. 3.
    The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also fattening, plumping, and laying out. Also: fattening, plumping, laying out