Chapter Bumbast to Buoy of B by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

1. To keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat; — with up.

2. To support or sustain; to preserve from sinking into ruin or despondency.

Those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title.
Burke.

3. To fix buoys to; to mark by a buoy or by buoys; as, to buoy an anchor; to buoy or buoy off a channel.

Not one rock near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by this floating weed.
Darwin.

Buoy
(Buoy), v. i. To float; to rise like a buoy. "Rising merit will buoy up at last." Pope.