Float"ing, a. 1. Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of
a wreck; floating motes in the air.
2. Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man
and some other animals.
3. Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as, floating
capital; a floating debt.
Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been withdrawn in great
masses from the island.
Macaulay.
Floating anchor (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail. -- Floating
battery (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the hulls of ships,
chiefly for the defense of a coast or the bombardment of a place. --
Floating bridge. (a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a
floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See
Bateau. (b) (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one projecting
beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys; --
used for carrying troops over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of
a fort. (c) A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by means
of chains which are anchored on each side of a stream, and pass over
wheels on the vessel, the wheels being driven by stream power. (d) The
landing platform of a ferry dock. -- Floating cartilage (Med.), a
cartilage which moves freely in the cavity of a joint, and often
interferes with the functions of the latter. -- Floating dam. (a) An
anchored dam. (b) A caisson used as a gate for a dry dock. -- Floating
derrick, a derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising
vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc. -- Floating dock.
(Naut.) See under Dock. -- Floating harbor, a breakwater of cages or
booms, anchored and fastened together, and used as a protection to
ships riding at anchor to leeward. Knight. -- Floating heart (Bot.), a
small aquatic plant (Limnanthemum lacunosum) whose heart-shaped leaves
float on the water of American ponds. -- Floating island, a dish for
dessert, consisting of custard with floating masses of whipped cream or
white of eggs. -- Floating kidney. (Med.) See Wandering kidney, under
Wandering. -- Floating light, a light shown at the masthead of a vessel
moored over sunken rocks, shoals, etc., to warn mariners of danger; a
light-ship; also, a light erected on a buoy or floating stage. --
Floating liver. (Med.) See Wandering liver, under Wandering. --
Floating pier, a landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the
tide. -- Floating ribs (Anat.), the lower or posterior ribs which are
not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two
pairs. -- Floating screed (Plastering), a strip of plastering first
laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat. -- Floating
threads (Weaving), threads which span several other threads without
being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric.
<! p. 572 !>
Float"ing (?), n. 1. (Weaving) Floating threads. See Floating threads,
above.