A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered thefloor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.
(geology,biology, chiefly with a modifier) The bottom surface of a natural structure, entity, or space(e.g. cave, forest, ocean, desert, etc.); theground(surface of the Earth).
The leaves covering the forestfloor provide many hiding-places for small animals.
Many sunken ships rest on the oceanfloor.
Thefloor of a cave served the refugees as a home.
The pitfloor showed where a ring of post holes had been.
When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroomfloor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.
In aparliament, the part of the house assigned to the members, as opposed to the viewing gallery.
(by extension) The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event.
Will the senator from Arizona yield thefloor?
The mayor often gives a lobbyist thefloor.
(nautical) That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal.
(mining) A horizontal, flat ore body; the rock underlying a stratified or nearly horizontal deposit.
2004, Tim Hatton,Tock Tock Birds: A Spider in the Web of International Terrorism[2], page284:
At each table stood a young, slim, poker-faced croupier serving the punters who anxiously watched the turning of the cards. The next twofloors were similar though not quite as spectacular and the stakes were lower.
The area of an establishment where food and drink are served to customers.
1947 March 18, U.S. Government Printing Office,Proceedings and Debates of the Congress, Eightieth Congress, First Session,page2206:
The conference started as an impromptu session in the coffee shop this morning when waitresses walked off thefloor rather than serve four Negro men and women delegates.
The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century,[…].
2008,Wally Lamb,The Hour I First Believed, Ch.7, at p.161:
I don't remember much about the flight from Chicago to Denver. We landed a little after eleven, and I ran through the airport, ran to my car.Floored it most of the way home.
2021 June 3, Katherine Eban, “The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins”, inVanity Fair[3]:
Some of the attendees were “absolutelyfloored,” said an official familiar with the proceedings. That someone in the U.S. government could “make an argument that is so nakedly against transparency, in light of the unfolding catastrophe, was…shocking and disturbing.”
(countable)floor(the interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room)
2000, “James 2”, in Joseph Grimes, transl.,Da Jesus Book: Hawaii Pidgin New Testament[4], Wycliffe Bible Translators,→ISBN,page627:
An den you guys tink, “Eh! Da guy wit da nice kine clotheses, check um out!” Den you guys make nice to him, an you tell um, “Come! Sit down hea on dis good seat!” But you tell da poor guy, “Eh, you! Stand ova dea!” o, “Sit down on dafloor by my feet!”
You look at the one wearing beautiful clothes and say, ‘Take the honored seat,’ but to the poor man you say, ‘Stand over there or sit on thefloor.’
