Froma- +float.
afloat (notcomparable)
- In or into a state offloating.
1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe],The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […],→OCLC,page224:[…] I went down to my Boat, got the Water out of her, and got herafloat, loaded all my Cargo in her, and then went Home again for more;
1881,Christina Rossetti, “De Profundis”, inA Pageant and Other Poems[2], London: Macmillan, page60:Oh why is heaven built so far, / Oh why is earth set so remote? / I cannot reach the nearest star / That hangsafloat.
- In, or while in, avessel atsea or on anotherbody of water;at sea.
- Antonym:ashore
1788,Alexander Jardine,Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, Portugal, &c.[3], London: T. Cadell,Volume 2, Letter 23, p. 236:[…] that trade[…] may likewise employ many useful hands both ashore andafloat,
- Under water (bearing floating objects).
- Synonym:awash
- 1695,Edmund Gibson (translator),Camden’s Britannia, London: A. Swalle, “Staffordshire,”[5]
- […] it [theRiver Dove] overflows and lays the meadowsafloat in April, like another Nile.
- (figurative, of ideas, information, etc.) In or intocirculation orcurrency.
1757,William Burke,Edmund Burke,An Account of the European Settlements in America[8], London: R. and J. Dodsley, Volume 2, Part 7, Chapter 4, p. 150:[…] as this example set the discourse about witchcraftafloat, some people, troubled with a similar complaint, began to fancy themselves bewitched too.
- (obsolete, figurative, of an emotional state) In or into a condition ofstimulation,arousal,confusion,bewilderment, etc.
- Synonym:at sea
1821,William Hazlitt,Table-Talk[9], London: John Warren, Essay 1, page 3:No angry passions rise to disturb the silent progress of the work,[…] no irritable humours are setafloat:
1878,John Berwick Harwood, chapter 17, inHelena Lady Harrogate,[10], volume 1, London: Richard Bentley, page312:[…] they knew how to abstain from the overdose of liquor that sets the brainafloat and loosens the tongue.
afloat (notcomparable)
- Floating.
A rubber duck and other toys wereafloat in the bath.
1599 (first performance),William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act IV, scene iii]:On such a full sea are we nowafloat; / And we must take the current when it serves, / Or lose our ventures.
- In, or found while in, avessel atsea or on anotherbody of water.
- Antonym:ashore
1788,Alexander Jardine,Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, Portugal, &c.[11], London: T. Cadell,Volume 2, Letter 23, p. 236:[…] that trade[…] may likewise employ many useful hands both ashore andafloat,
- Floating in theair;flowing freely; not tied,braided, etc.(of hair or clothing)
1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, inMemoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton andRalph Griffiths] […],→OCLC:her black hair loose anda-float down her dazzling white neck
1971,Poul Anderson, chapter 4, inThe Broken Sword[12], New York: Ballantine Books, published1981, page11:unbound silvery-gold tressesafloat beneath a jeweled coronet
- Covered with water, bearing floating objects.
- Synonyms:awash,flooded
The decks areafloat.
1938,Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 19, inThe Yearling[13], New York: Scribner, page233:The yard wasafloat. Jody looked out of the window and saw two drowned biddies floating about with upturned bellies.
- (figurative)Covered,overspread,filled (with orin something).
- Synonyms:alive,awash
1979,Bernard Malamud,Dubin’s Lives[16], New York: Farrar Straus Giroux,Part 1, p. 51:The lobby wasafloat with men, single and married, meeting pretty women in bright dresses and pants suits, single and married.
- (of an organization) Having just enough resources to continue tooperate; barely able to payexpenses;(of a private individual, family, etc.)keeping one's head above water.
- Synonyms:on one's feet,solvent
- Antonyms:bankrupt,insolvent
The donation will keep our businessafloat for quite a while.
1549,Miles Coverdale, transl.,The Paraphrase ofErasmus upon the New Testament[17], London: Edward Whitchurche, Volume 2,Philippians 4:[…] you nede not to be sorye, as thoughe your frendely liberalitie had not be very acceptable vnto me. I haue receaued euery thing, and now I amafloate, by your lyberall sendyng.
1753,Tobias Smollett, chapter 54, inThe Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom[18], Edinburgh: Mundell & Son, published1800, pages306–307:He[…] endeavoured, by forcing himself into a lower path of life than any he had hitherto trod, to keep himselfafloat, with the portion of some tradesman’s daughter, whom he meant to espouse.
1887, Harriet W. Daly,Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page191:They somehow manage to keep "afloat," so as to obtain the needful funds to pay their passages and to purchase, tools and rations.
2010,Nadifa Mohamed,Black Mamba Boy[19], New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page67:The clan handouts that kept other Somalisafloat were absent here, as the Yibros were so few and so poor.
2025 June 21, Fredreka Schouten and Arit John, “The DNC’s cash crunch deepens as new filings show Republicans with a huge advantage”, inCNN[20]:The party’s cash crunch is serious enough that party officials have weighed seeking a line of credit to help it stayafloat, a development first reported by The New York Times.
- (figurative, of ideas, information, etc.) Believed or talked about by many people; being passed from person to person.
- Synonyms:circulating,in circulation,current
The supervisor was never fired, though countless accusations of dishonesty wereafloat.
1945,Evelyn Waugh,Brideshead Revisited[21], London: Chapman & Hall,Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 243:[…] she and I were accepted, whatever ugly rumours had beenafloat in the past year, as man and wife.
- (obsolete, figurative, of an emotional state)Stimulated,aroused,activated.
1794,Thomas Holcroft, chapter 6, inThe Adventures of Hugh Trevor[23], volume 1, London: Shepperson and Reynolds, page46:My half frozen blood and my fears againafloat made me tremble through every limb;
- (obsolete, figurative) In a state ofconfusion,bewilderment, ordistraction.
- Synonyms:at sea,bewildered,confused,distracted
- 1789,Edward Gibbon, letter toLord Sheffield dated August 1789, inMiscellaneous Works, London: A. Strahanet al., 1796, p. 201,[24]
- I know not what to say; my mind is allafloat; yet you will not reproach me with caprice or inconstancy.
1887,Harry Castlemon, chapter 1, inOur Fellows[25], Philadelphia: John C. Winston, page10:[…] he could correctly analyze and parse any sentence you could give him, no matter how complex; but when it came to talking he was allafloat.
As an adjective,afloat can be used onlypostpositively:The cardboard ships wereafloat in the bathtub, orThe cardboard ships,afloat in the bathtub, were soon waterlogged; but not *Theafloat toys soon sank because they were made of cardboard. In that context,floating can be used instead.
afloat
- (obsolete) Floating upon.
- early 1600s,John Webster andWilliam Rowley,The Thracian Wonder, London: Thomas Johnson, 1661, Act I, Scene 1,[26]
- But Huswife, as for you, / You with your Brat, wee’l sendafloat the Main,
1642,Robert Cotton,The Troublesome Life and Raigne of King Henry the Third[27], London: George Lindsey, page 5:[…] great wee see must be the art and cunning of that man, that keeps himafloat the streame of Soveraigne favour,
