Center of flotation. (Shipbuilding) (a) The center of any given plane
of flotation. (b) More commonly, the middle of the length of the load
water line. Rankine. -- Plane, or Line, of flotation, the plane or line
in which the horizontal surface of a fluid cuts a body floating in it.
See Bearing, n., 9 (c). -- Surface of flotation (Shipbuilding), the
imaginary surface which all the planes of flotation touch when a vessel
rolls or pitches; the envelope of all such planes.
Flote (?), v. t. To fleet; to skim. [Obs.] Tusser.
Flote, n. [Cf. F. flot, L. fluctus; also cf. Float, n.] A wave. [Obs.]
"The Mediterranean flote." Shak.