See Also: Float(finance)
Float(money)
Net float(finance)
Net float(money)
float(1)(dictionary)
float(2)(dictionary)
Float(medicine)
Float(casino)
Collection float(finance)
Dirty float(finance)

float(2) (iou)



float verb. Also flote.
[Late Old English flotian = Old Saxon floton (Middle Dutch vloten), Old Norse flota, from Germanic weak grade of base of FLEET verb1. Reinforced in Middle English by Old French floter (mod. flotter) from Proto-Romance, prob. also from Germanic.]
I. verb intrans.
Rest or move on the surface of a liquid without sinking; be or become buoyant; (of a stranded ship) get afloat. LOE.
W. Cowper Her timbers yet are sound, And she may float again. T. H. Huxley Ice floats readily on water.
Move gently, drift, on or as on the surface of a moving liquid; move or be suspended freely (in a liquid or gas etc.). Formerly also, (of a fish) swim. ME.
J. Steinbeck Any dead fish or sea bird that might have floated in on a rising tide. M. Innes A murmur of voices floated briefly down. A. Powell Dark fumes floated above the houses.
b. Move or depart in a casual or leisurely way; wander from place to place. slang. E20.
c. Of a currency: fluctuate in international exchange value according to market forces. M20.
d. Electronics. Of a part of an electric circuit: be unconnected to a source of fixed potential. M20.
a. Undulate, oscillate, be unsteady; spread in an undulating form; fig. waver. L16-E19.
b. Move or hover dimly before the eye or in the mind. L17.
B. Plain Her face floats over the pages..and no matter what else I'm thinking, part of me is always thinking of her.
Commerce. Of an acceptance: be in circulation. L18.
Weaving. Of a thread: pass over or under several threads either of the warp or weft, instead of being interwoven with them. L19.
II. verb trans.
Cover with a liquid; irrigate (land); flood, drench, saturate. L16.
J. Austen He thought..I should find the near way floated by this rain.
a. Of water, the tide, etc.: support, set afloat, or bear along by the force of the current, (a buoyant object). E17.
b. Cause to be borne along on the surface of water, or to move gently in or through the air; transport by water. M18.
E. Waugh Exquisite private jokes which they wrote on leaves and floated downstream. C. Ryan Makeshift ferries composed of rubber rafts were slowly floating trucks across the river. Daily Telegraph Barnes..floated over a high cross and Lineker was there to nod it into the net.
c. Bring into favour, launch (a company, scheme, etc.); put (shares in a company) up for sale on the stock market; air (an idea, theory, etc.); circulate (a rumour). M19.
F. Forsyth Bormac was..floated with an issue of half a million ordinary shares. H. Kissinger Brezhnev..floated the concept of 'a system of collective security in Asia.'
d. Allow (a currency) to have a fluctuating exchange rate. L20.
Make smooth or level; esp. (a) Plastering level (the surface of plaster) with a trowel; (b) Farriery (now rare) file the teeth (of a horse). E18.
Comb.: float-boat (a) a ship's longboat; (b) a raft; float-stone (a) a bricklayer's stone for smoothing bricks used in curved work; (b) a light porous stone that floats.
floatative adjective tending to or producing flotation M19.
floating noun (a) the action of the verb; an instance of this; (b) Plastering the second of three coats of plaster: M16.