Link Centre Dictionary

floater

floa·ter

UK/ˈfləʊtə/ US/ˈfloʊtəɹ/ uncommon dated slang us vulgar

noun

1.

spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in the vitreous humor and lens

Synonyms
2.

a debt instrument with a variable interest rate tied to some other interest rate (e.g. the rate paid by T-bills)

3.
4.

an employee who is reassigned from job to job as needed

5.

a voter who votes illegally at different polling places in the same election

6.

a swimmer who floats in the water

7.

an object that floats or is capable of floating

8.

Origin

From float + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Compare Old English flota (“boat, ship", also "sailor, pirate”, literally “floater”), whence Middle English flote (“a fleet of ships", also, "a float, flotation device”).

Phrases

  • lightwood-knot floater
  • pie floater

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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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.