Meaning of Floater | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A person who floats.
2. A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.
3. A corpse floating in a body of water.
   slang
4. A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
   figuratively
5. A person who frequently changes where they live; a drifter, a vagrant.
   figuratively
6. A person who frequently changes employment.
   figuratively
7. An employee of an organization who does not have fixed tasks to do but fills in wherever needed, usually when someone else is away; also, a short-term employee; a temporary, a temp.
   figuratively
8. An "extra" (male) guest at a party who is asked by the host to entertain the other (often female) guests.
   figuratively
9. A person who attaches themselves to a group of people, and who repeatedly shows up at group activities even though this is undesired by the group; a hanger-on.
   figuratively, slang
10. A voter who shifts their allegiance from one political party to another, especially (US) one whose vote can be illegally purchased.
    figuratively
11. A person who votes illegally in various electoral districts or polling places, either under a false voter registration or under the name of a properly registered voter who has not yet voted.
    US, figuratively
12. A person, such as a delegate to a convention or a member of a legislature, who represents an irregular constituency, such as one formed by a union of the voters of two counties neither of which has a number sufficient to be allowed one (or an extra) representative of its own.
    US, figuratively
13. A player not affiliated with a team.
    figuratively
14. A thing which floats.
15. A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
16. A river mussel (genus Anodonta).
17. A small suet dumpling put into soup.
18. A piece of faeces which floats.
    vulgar
19. A threadlike speck in the visual field which seems to move, possibly caused by degeneration of the vitreous humour of the eye.
20. A ball that moves lightly through the air, as if floating; specifically (basketball), an early layup taken by a player moving towards the rim where, upon release, the ball floats in the air over the top of a defender before dropping softly into the hoop.
21. Ellipsis of pie floater (“a meat pie served floating in a bowl of thick green pea soup”).
    Australia, abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
22. A waterproof sandal.
    India
23. A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
    dated, figuratively, slang
24. A mistake or misstep; a faux pas.
    dated, figuratively, slang
25. Clipping of floating rate bond.
    abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, figuratively
26. An insurance policy covering movable property at more than one location or which may be in transit.
    figuratively
27. A book circulated between prisoners which is not part of the official prison library.
    figuratively, slang
28. A manoeuvre in which a surfer transitions above the unbroken face of a wave on to the lip, or on top of the breaking section of the wave.
    figuratively
29. A spinning delivery of the ball that travels in a high arched path.
    figuratively
30. A coin which does not spin when thrown in the air.
    figuratively
31. A criminal sentence which is suspended so long as the convicted person leaves an area.
    US, figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“Great God of VVaters [i.e., Neptune], vvhoſe extended Svvay / Is next to his, vvhom Heav'n and Earth obey: / Let not the Suit of Venus thee diſpleaſe, / Pity the Floaters on th' Ionian Seas.”

“A dock worker saw him floating against a dock pier and called the police. Condition of the body they thought a floater that had been hit by a boat and cut by the prop.”

“'The murdered girl was working for us, for the department.' / 'A floater?' / 'No. Permanent; warranty contract; the lot.'”

“About an hour later a ration lorry found them, and the men were woken again, this time to a good meal of bully stew and floaters – suet dumplings – followed by cold rice pudding with jam.”

“He left a floater in the toilet.”

“The floater is a high arcing shot that is commonly used to get the ball over taller defenders in the paint.”

“Replace your leather sandals with rubber slippers, sandals or floaters. They don't soak water well and why in this world would you want to spoil your expensive leather footwear in puddles?”

“Suddenly, for no reason, in the middle of the night, or even in the middle of the jolliest party, she would remember an ancient floater—just like that, à propos de bottes—would remember and be overcome by a feeling of self-reproach and retrospective shame. […] One could do one's best; but one could never really persuade oneself that the floater hadn't happened. Imagination might struggle to annihilate the odious memory; but it never had power to win a decisive victory.”

“He greeted William with cordiality. "Ah, Boot, how are you? Don't think I've had the pleasure before. Know your work well of course. Sit down. Have a cigarette or"—had he made a floater?—"or do you prefer your churchwarden?"”

“I must let her know I'm here and put her in touch with the general situation so she will be warned against making any floaters.”

“One prisoner came to me and asked if I had anything to read. As I hadn’t, he said he would bring me some reading. The next day he arrived with two serious books under his shirt. ‘Floaters’ [i.e. unofficially circulated books] had also come into the prison: you could either find them in the library, or they would be given to someone else to keep away from the screws—they were never openly visible.”

“His [Gordon Frank Newman’s] books were ‘floaters’, banned by the borstal, but copies were smuggled in and from wing to wing. We used to rip the covers off them cos if you got caught with one it was seven days block.”

“[Rule] 477.(1) The boxer for a game of triple penny two-up, or a floor manager, may declare a spin invalid if the spin is a floater. […] [Rule 477.](6) In this section—"floater" means a spin in which at least 1 of the coins does not turn over in the air at least once.”

“["]Suppose I should tell you that there's a permanent order in the sheriff's office, left there by the old sheriff, that if I ever use your name or admit I'm your wife I'll get a floater out of the county and out of the state. Does that tempt you?" / "Tempt me to do what?" / "To get me floated and take all the money."”

CEFR level