Link Centre Dictionary

buoy

UK/ˈbɔɪ/ US/ˈboj/ uncommon
noun (1) verb (3)

noun

1.

bright-colored; a float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater hazards

verb

1.

float on the surface of water

2.

keep afloat

  • “The life vest buoyed him up”
Synonyms
3.

mark with a buoy

Origin

From Middle English boy, boye, from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), from Old French boue (“piece of wood or cork that floats above an anchor to indicate where it is anchored”) (modern French bouée), ultimately from Frankish *baukn (“beacon”), from Proto-Germanic *baukną. Doublet of beacon. Alternatively, and perhaps less likely (due to the unexplained shift in meaning), from Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”), from Latin boia (“a (leather) collar, band, fetter”), from Ancient Greek βόεος (bóeos), βόειος (bóeios, “of ox-hide”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”). Noun sense 2 was coined by American linguist Scott K. Lindell in 2003.

Phrases

  • anchor buoy
  • bell buoy
  • breeches buoy
  • buoy rope
  • buoy tender
  • buoy up
  • cable buoy
  • can buoy
  • conical buoy

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.