together, and conveyed down a stream by the current; a raft. (b) The hollow, metallic ball of a self-acting
faucet, which floats upon the water in a cistern or boiler. (c) The cork or quill used in angling, to support
the bait line, and indicate the bite of a fish. (d) Anything used to buoy up whatever is liable to sink; an
inflated bag or pillow used by persons learning to swim; a life preserver.
This reform bill . . . had been used as a float by the conservative ministry.
J. P. Peters. 2. A float board. See Float board
3. (Tempering) A contrivance for affording a copious stream of water to the heated surface of an object
of large bulk, as an anvil or die. Knight.
4. The act of flowing; flux; flow. [Obs.] Bacon.
5. A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one foot deep. [Obs.] Mortimer.
6. (Plastering) The trowel or tool with which the floated coat of plastering is leveled and smoothed.
7. A polishing block used in marble working; a runner. Knight.
8. A single-cut file for smoothing; a tool used by shoemakers for rasping off pegs inside a shoe.
9. A coal cart. [Eng.] Simmonds.
10. The sea; a wave. See Flote, n.
Float board, one of the boards fixed radially to the rim of an undershot water wheel or of a steamer's
paddle wheel; — a vane. — Float case (Naut.), a caisson used for lifting a ship. — Float copper
or gold (Mining), fine particles of metallic copper or of gold suspended in water, and thus liable to be
lost. — Float ore, water-worn particles of ore; fragments of vein material found on the surface, away
from the vein outcrop. Raymond. — Float stone (Arch.), a siliceous stone used to rub stonework
or brickwork to a smooth surface. — Float valve, a valve or cock acted upon by a float. See Float, 1
(b).
Float
(Float), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Floated; p. pr. & vb. n. Floating.] [OE. flotien, flotten, AS. flotian
to float, swim, fr. fleótan. See Float, n.]
1. To rest on the surface of any fluid; to swim; to be buoyed up.
The ark no more now floats, but seems on ground.
Milton.
Three blustering nights, borne by the southern blast,
I floated.
Dryden. 2. To move quietly or gently on the water, as a raft; to drift along; to move or glide without effort or impulse
on the surface of a fluid, or through the air.
They stretch their broad plumes and float upon the wind.
Pope.
There seems a floating whisper on the hills.
Byron. Float
(Float), v. t.
1. To cause to float; to cause to rest or move on the surface of a fluid; as, the tide floated the ship into
the harbor.
Had floated that bell on the Inchcape rock.
Southey.
