floater

Plural: floaters

Noun

• A person or object that drifts or remains suspended.
• spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in the vitreous humor and lens
  • "floaters seem to drift through the field of vision"
• a debt instrument with a variable interest rate tied to some other interest rate (e.g. the rate paid by T-bills)
• a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support
• an employee who is reassigned from job to job as needed
• a voter who votes illegally at different polling places in the same election
• a swimmer who floats in the water
• an object that floats or is capable of floating
• an insurance policy covering loss of movable property (e.g. jewelry) regardless of its location
• A person who floats.
• A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A person who floats.
• A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A corpse floating in a body of water.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• A person who frequently changes where they live; a drifter, a vagrant.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• A person who frequently changes employment.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• An employee of an organization who does not have fixed tasks to do but fills in wherever needed, usually when someone else is away; also, a short-term employee; a temporary, a temp.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• An "extra" (male) guest at a party who is asked by the host to entertain the other (often female) guests.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• A person who attaches themselves to a group of people, and who repeatedly shows up at group activities even though this is undesired by the group; a hanger-on.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• A voter who shifts their allegiance from one political party to another, especially (US) one whose vote can be illegally purchased.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• A person who votes illegally in various electoral districts or polling places, either under a false voter registration or under the name of a properly registered voter who has not yet voted.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• A person, such as a delegate to a convention or a member of a legislature, who represents an irregular constituency, such as one formed by a union of the voters of two counties neither of which has a number sufficient to be allowed one (or an extra) representative of its own.
• A person who floats.
• A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
• A player not affiliated with a team.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A river mussel (genus Anodonta).
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A small suet dumpling put into soup.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A piece of faeces which floats.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A threadlike speck in the visual field which seems to move, possibly caused by degeneration of the vitreous humour of the eye.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A ball that moves lightly through the air, as if floating; specifically (basketball), an early layup taken by a player moving towards the rim where, upon release, the ball floats in the air over the top of a defender before dropping softly into the hoop.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• Ellipsis of pie floater (“a meat pie served floating in a bowl of thick green pea soup”).
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
• A waterproof sandal.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• A mistake or misstep; a faux pas.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• Clipping of floating rate bond.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• An insurance policy covering movable property at more than one location or which may be in transit.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• A book circulated between prisoners which is not part of the official prison library.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• A manoeuvre in which a surfer transitions above the unbroken face of a wave on to the lip, or on top of the breaking section of the wave.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• A spinning delivery of the ball that travels in a high arched path.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• A coin which does not spin when thrown in the air.
• A thing which floats.
• A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
• A criminal sentence which is suspended so long as the convicted person leaves an area.

Examples

• He left a floater in the toilet.
• His FL_TER play was a floater, just barely connecting to existing tiles.

Synonyms

drifter, floating policy, musca volitans, muscae volitantes, spots, vagabond, vagrant, Jack out of doors, aberration, barbarism, bloomer, blooper, blunder, boner, boo-boo, break, bum, casual, clanger, clochard, cock-up, derelict, dero, down-and-out, down-and-outer, epithite, erroneity, error, false move, false step, fault, faux pas, floater, flub, fluff, fuckup, gadling, gaffe, goof, hobo, howler, inaccuracy, knight of the road, landleaper, landloper, landlouper, lapse, lapsus, mess-up, misstep, mistake, nomad, oopsy, paker, palliard, pike, piker, ranger, rogue, rolling stone, rough sleeper, scatterling, screwup, skelder, skell, slip, slip-up, slipup, solecism, stroller, stumble, stumblebum, swaggie, swagman, thinko, toerag, tramp, truant, waif, wanderer, wrength, yagger

Related Words

mote