afloat

English

Etymology

a- +‎ float

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈfloʊt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊt

Adverb

afloat (not comparable)

1. Floating.

   A rubber duck and other toys were afloat in the bath.

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     On such a full sea are we now afloat; / And we must take the current when it serves, / Or lose our ventures.

   • 1668, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all, London: H. Herringman, Act II, p. 22,^[1]

     You have so little Brains, that a Penn’orth of Butter melted under ’um, would set ’um afloat:

   • 1881, Christina Rossetti, “De Profundis” in A Pageant and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, p. 60,^[2]

     Oh why is heaven built so far, / Oh why is earth set so remote? / I cannot reach the nearest star / That hangs afloat.

2. In a vessel at sea or on another body of water.

   Antonym: ashore

   • 1788, Alexander Jardine, Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, Portugal, &c., London: T. Cadell, Volume 2, Letter 23, p. 236,^[3]

     […] that trade […] may likewise employ many useful hands both ashore and afloat,

   • 1947, James Michener, Tales of the South Pacific, New York: Dial, 2014, “The Strike,” p. 315,^[4]

     Navy chow ashore is rarely as good as it is afloat, and for enlisted men it is usually much worse.

3. (of hair or clothing) Floating in the air; flowing freely; not tied, braided, etc.
   • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     her black hair loose and a-float down her dazzling white neck

   • 1971, Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword, New York: Ballantine Books, 1981, Chapter 4, p. 11,^[5]

     unbound silvery-gold tresses afloat beneath a jeweled coronet

   • 2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, Chapter 7, p. 152,^[6]

     […] she roars down the street, dreads and feathers and cape afloat,

4. Covered with water (bearing floating objects).

   Synonyms: awash, flooded

   The decks are afloat.

   • 1695, Edmund Gibson (translator), Camden’s Britannia, London: A. Swalle, “Staffordshire,”^[7]

     […] it [the River Dove] overflows and lays the meadows afloat in April, like another Nile

   • 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, The Yearling, New York: Scribner, Chapter 19, p. 233,^[8]

     The yard was afloat. Jody looked out of the window and saw two drowned biddies floating about with upturned bellies.

5. (figurative) Covered, overspread (with or in something).

   Synonym: awash

   • 1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 233,^[9]

     The larch-wood was afloat with clear, lyric green,

   • 1935, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mistress Pat, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1937, p. 100,^[10]

     The world was afloat in primrose light, pale and exquisite.

   • 1979, Bernard Malamud, Dubin’s Lives, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, Part 1, p. 51,^[11]

     The lobby was afloat with men, single and married, meeting pretty women in bright dresses and pants suits, single and married.

6. (of an organization) Having enough money to continue to operate; (of a private individual, family, etc.) able to pay one's expenses, able to keep one's head above water.

   Synonyms: on one's feet, solvent

   Antonyms: bankrupt, insolvent

   The donation will keep our business afloat for quite a while.

   • 1549, Miles Coverdale (translator), The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the New Testament, London: Edward Whitchurche, Volume 2, Philippians 4,^[12]

     […] 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 am afloate, by your lyberall sendyng.

   • 1753, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, Edinburgh: Mundell & Son, 1800, Chapter 54, pp. 306-307,^[13]

     He […] endeavoured, by forcing himself into a lower path of life than any he had hitherto trod, to keep himself afloat, with the portion of some tradesman’s daughter, whom he meant to espouse.

   • 2010, Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p. 67,^[14]

     The clan handouts that kept other Somalis afloat were absent here, as the Yibros were so few and so poor.

7. (dated, of ideas, information, etc.) Being believed or discussed by many people; being passed from person to person.

   Synonyms: circulating, in circulation, current

   • 1587 Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed’s Chronicles, Volume 3, Edward I, p. 298,^[15]

     setting a lie aflote

   • 1757, William Burke and Edmund Burke, An Account of the European Settlements in America, London: R. and J. Dodsley, Volume 2, Part 7, Chapter 4, p. 150,^[16]

     […] as this example set the discourse about witchcraft afloat, some people, troubled with a similar complaint, began to fancy themselves bewitched too.

   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, London: Smith, Elder, Volume 2, Chapter 5, p. 163,^[17]

     […] I shall not be judged fairly; it will get afloat that I am not a good girl,

   • 1945, Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, London: Chapman & Hall, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 243,^[18]

     […] she and I were accepted, whatever ugly rumours had been afloat in the past year, as man and wife.

8. (obsolete, of an emotional state) Stimulated, aroused.
   • 1769, Elizabeth Griffith, The School for Rakes, London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, Epilogue, p. 92,^[19]

     You’ll find, when once my passion is afloat, / The soul of Caesar, in a petticoat!

   • 1794, Thomas Holcroft, The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, London: Shepperson and Reynolds, Volume 1, Chapter 6, p. 46,^[20]

     My half frozen blood and my fears again afloat made me tremble through every limb;

   • 1821, William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, London: John Warren, Essay 1, p. 3,^[21]

     No angry passions rise to disturb the silent progress of the work, […] no irritable humours are set afloat:

9. (obsolete) In a state of confusion or bewilderment.

   Synonym: at sea

   • 1789, Edward Gibbon, letter to Lord Sheffield dated August 1789, in Miscellaneous Works, London: A. Strahan et al., 1796, p. 201,^[22]

     I know not what to say; my mind is all afloat; yet you will not reproach me with caprice or inconstancy.

   • 1878, John Berwick Harwood, Helena Lady Harrogate, London: Richard Bentley, Volume 1, Chapter 17, p. 312,^[23]

     […] they knew how to abstain from the overdose of liquor that sets the brain afloat and loosens the tongue.

   • 1887, Harry Castlemon, Our Fellows, Philadelphia: John C. Winston, Chapter 1, p. 10,^[24]

     […] he could correctly analyze and parse any sentence you could give him, no matter how complex; but when it came to talking he was all afloat.

Translations

floating

• Bulgarian: плуващ (bg) (pluvašt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 浮着地

• Finnish: pinnalla (fi)
• French: à flot (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Galician: flotante
• Portuguese: flutuante (pt)
• Russian: на плаву́ (ru) (na plavú), пла́вающий (ru) (plávajuščij)
• Spanish: a flote

at sea

• Bulgarian: на вода (na voda), по море (po more)
• Finnish: merellä (fi)
• Galician: a flote
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: pe apă, pe mare
• Russian: в мо́ре (v móre), на мо́ре (na móre), на воде́ (na vodé)

Preposition

afloat

1. (obsolete) Floating on.
   • early 1600s, John Webster and William Rowley, The Thracian Wonder, London: Thomas Johnson, 1661, Act I, Scene 1,^[25]

     But Huswife, as for you, / You with your Brat, wee’l send afloat the Main,

   • 1642, Robert Cotton, The Troublesome Life and Raigne of King Henry the Third, London: George Lindsey, p. 5,^[26]

     […] great wee see must be the art and cunning of that man, that keeps him afloat the streame of Soveraigne favour,