# afloat
## English
### Etymology

From a- +‎ float.

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /əˈfloʊt/
** Audio (US):(file)
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /əˈfləʊt/
* enPR: ə-flōtˈ
* Rhymes: -əʊt

### Adverb

afloat (not comparable)
* In or into a state of floating.
** 1668, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all‎, London: H. Herringman, act II, page 22:You have so little Brains, that a Penn’orth of Butter melted under ’um, would set ’um afloat:
** 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 224:[…] I went down to my Boat, got the Water out of her, and got her afloat, loaded all my Cargo in her, and then went Home again for more;
** 1881, Christina Rossetti, “De Profundis”, in A Pageant and Other Poems‎, London: Macmillan, page 60:Oh why is heaven built so far, / Oh why is earth set so remote? / I cannot reach the nearest star / That hangs afloat.
* In, or while in, a vessel at sea or on another body of water; at sea.
    Antonym: ashore
** 1788, Alexander Jardine, Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, Portugal, &c.‎, London: T. Cadell, Volume 2, Letter 23, p. 236:[…] that trade […] may likewise employ many useful hands both ashore and afloat,
** 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 11, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part II (The Sea Cook), page 88:They was the roughest crew afloat, was Flint’s; the devil himself would have been feared to go to sea with them.
** 1947, James Michener, “The Strike”, in Tales of the South Pacific‎, New York: Dial, published 2014, page 315:Navy chow ashore is rarely as good as it is afloat, and for enlisted men it is usually much worse.
* Under water (bearing floating objects).
    Synonym: awash
** 1695, Edmund Gibson (translator), Camden’s Britannia, London: A. Swalle, “Staffordshire,”
    […] it [the River Dove] overflows and lays the meadows afloat in April, like another Nile.
* (figurative, of ideas, information, etc.) In or into circulation or currency.
** 1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed’s Chronicles‎, volume 3, Edward I, page 298:setting a lie aflote
** 1878, Thomas Hardy, chapter 5, in The Return of the Native‎, volume 2, London: Smith, Elder, page 163:[…] I shall not be judged fairly; it will get afloat that I am not a good girl,
** 1757, William Burke, Edmund Burke, An Account of the European Settlements in America‎, London: R. and J. Dodsley, Volume 2, Part 7, Chapter 4, p. 150:[…] as this example set the discourse about witchcraft afloat, some people, troubled with a similar complaint, began to fancy themselves bewitched too.
* (obsolete, figurative, of an emotional state) In or into a condition of stimulation, arousal, confusion, bewilderment, etc.
    Synonym: at sea
** 1821, William Hazlitt, Table-Talk‎, London: John Warren, Essay 1, page 3:No angry passions rise to disturb the silent progress of the work, […] no irritable humours are set afloat:
** 1878, John Berwick Harwood, chapter 17, in Helena Lady Harrogate,‎, volume 1, London: Richard Bentley, page 312:[…] they knew how to abstain from the overdose of liquor that sets the brain afloat and loosens the tongue.

### Adjective

afloat (not comparable)
* 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.
* In, or found while 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:[…] that trade […] may likewise employ many useful hands both ashore and afloat,
* Floating in the air; flowing freely; not tied, braided, etc. (of hair or clothing)
** 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, chapter 4, in The Broken Sword‎, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1981, page 11:unbound silvery-gold tresses afloat beneath a jeweled coronet
** 2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 152:[…] she roars down the street, dreads and feathers and cape afloat,
* Covered with water, bearing floating objects.
    Synonyms: awash, flooded
    The decks are afloat.
** 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 19, in The Yearling‎, New York: Scribner, page 233:The yard was afloat. Jody looked out of the window and saw two drowned biddies floating about with upturned bellies.
* (figurative) Covered, overspread, filled (with or in something).
    Synonyms: alive, awash
** 1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock‎, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 233:The larch-wood was afloat with clear, lyric green,
** 1935, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mistress Pat‎, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, published 1937, page 100: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:The lobby was afloat 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 to operate; barely able to pay expenses; (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 business afloat for quite a while.
** 1549, Miles Coverdale, transl., The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the New Testament‎, 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 am afloate, by your lyberall sendyng.
** 1753, Tobias Smollett, chapter 54, in The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom‎, Edinburgh: Mundell & Son, published 1800, pages 306–307: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.
** 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 34, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 309:[…] the price poor Jos Osborne had paid for her two horses was in itself sufficient to keep their little establishment afloat for a year, at least;
** 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 191: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, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 67:The clan handouts that kept other Somalis afloat were absent here, as the Yibros were so few and so poor.
* (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 were afloat.
** 1945, Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited‎, London: Chapman & Hall, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 243:[…] she and I were accepted, whatever ugly rumours had been afloat in the past year, as man and wife.
* (obsolete, figurative, of an emotional state) Stimulated, aroused, activated.
** 1769, Elizabeth Griffith, The School for Rakes‎, London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, Epilogue, page 92:You’ll find, when once my passion is afloat, / The soul of Caesar, in a petticoat!
** 1794, Thomas Holcroft, chapter 6, in The Adventures of Hugh Trevor‎, volume 1, London: Shepperson and Reynolds, page 46:My half frozen blood and my fears again afloat made me tremble through every limb;
* (obsolete, figurative) In a state of confusion, bewilderment, or distraction.
    Synonyms: at sea, bewildered, confused, distracted
** 1789, Edward Gibbon, letter to Lord Sheffield dated August 1789, in Miscellaneous Works, London: A. Strahan et al., 1796, p. 201,
    I know not what to say; my mind is all afloat; yet you will not reproach me with caprice or inconstancy.
** 1887, Harry Castlemon, chapter 1, in Our Fellows‎, Philadelphia: John C. Winston, page 10:[…] 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.

#### Usage notes

As an adjective, afloat can be used only postpositively: The cardboard ships were afloat in the bathtub, or The cardboard ships, afloat in the bathtub, were soon waterlogged; but not *The afloat toys soon sank because they were made of cardboard.

#### Translations
### Preposition

afloat
* (obsolete) Floating upon.
** early 1600s, John Webster and William Rowley, The Thracian Wonder, London: Thomas Johnson, 1661, Act I, Scene 1,
    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, page 5:[…] great wee see must be the art and cunning of that man, that keeps him afloat the streame of Soveraigne favour,