afloat
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈfloʊt/
ipa: /əˈfləʊt/
enpr: ə-flōtˈ
rhymes: -əʊt
Etymology: From a- + float.
Senses: examples: text: A rubber duck and other toys were afloat in the bath.
text: On such a full sea are we now afloat; / And we must take the current when it serves, / Or lose our ventures.
ref: 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]:
glosses: Floating.
examples: text: […] that trade […] may likewise employ many useful hands both ashore and afloat,
ref: 1788, Alexander Jardine, Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, Portugal, &c., London: T. Cadell, Volume 2, Letter 23, p. 236:
antonyms: ashore
glosses: In, or found while in, a vessel at sea or on another body of water.
examples: text: her black hair loose and a-float down her dazzling white neck
ref: 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:
english: Fanny Hill
translation: Fanny Hill
text: unbound silvery-gold tresses afloat beneath a jeweled coronet
ref: 1971, Poul Anderson, chapter 4, in The Broken Sword, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1981, page 11:
text: […] she roars down the street, dreads and feathers and cape afloat,
ref: 2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 152:
glosses: Floating in the air; flowing freely; not tied, braided, etc. (of hair or clothing)
examples: text: The decks are afloat.
text: The yard was afloat. Jody looked out of the window and saw two drowned biddies floating about with upturned bellies.
ref: 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 19, in The Yearling, New York: Scribner, page 233:
synonyms: awash
flooded
glosses: Covered with water, bearing floating objects.
examples: text: The larch-wood was afloat with clear, lyric green,
ref: 1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 233:
text: The world was afloat in primrose light, pale and exquisite.
ref: 1935, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mistress Pat, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, published 1937, page 100:
text: The lobby was afloat with men, single and married, meeting pretty women in bright dresses and pants suits, single and married.
ref: 1979, Bernard Malamud, Dubin’s Lives, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, Part 1, p. 51:
synonyms: alive
awash
glosses: Covered, overspread, filled (with or in something).
examples: text: The donation will keep our business afloat for quite a while.
text: […] 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.
ref: 1549, Miles Coverdale, transl., The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the New Testament, London: Edward Whitchurche, Volume 2, Philippians 4:
text: 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.
ref: 1753, Tobias Smollett, chapter 54, in The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, Edinburgh: Mundell & Son, published 1800, pages 306–307:
text: […] 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;
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 34, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 309:
text: They somehow manage to keep "afloat," so as to obtain the needful funds to pay their passages and to purchase, tools and rations.
ref: 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 191:
text: The clan handouts that kept other Somalis afloat were absent here, as the Yibros were so few and so poor.
ref: 2010, Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 67:
text: The party’s cash crunch is serious enough that party officials have weighed seeking a line of credit to help it stay afloat, a development first reported by The New York Times.
ref: 2025 June 21, Fredreka Schouten and Arit John, “The DNC’s cash crunch deepens as new filings show Republicans with a huge advantage”, in CNN:
synonyms: on one's feet
solvent
antonyms: bankrupt
insolvent
glosses: 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.
raw_tags: of an organization
examples: text: The supervisor was never fired, though countless accusations of dishonesty were afloat.
text: […] she and I were accepted, whatever ugly rumours had been afloat in the past year, as man and wife.
ref: 1945, Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, London: Chapman & Hall, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 243:
topics: information
synonyms: circulating
in circulation
current
glosses: Believed or talked about by many people; being passed from person to person.
raw_tags: of ideas
examples: text: You’ll find, when once my passion is afloat, / The soul of Caesar, in a petticoat!
ref: 1769, Elizabeth Griffith, The School for Rakes, London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, Epilogue, page 92:
text: My half frozen blood and my fears again afloat made me tremble through every limb;
ref: 1794, Thomas Holcroft, chapter 6, in The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, volume 1, London: Shepperson and Reynolds, page 46:
glosses: Stimulated, aroused, activated.
raw_tags: of an emotional state
examples: text: 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.
text: […] 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.
ref: 1887, Harry Castlemon, chapter 1, in Our Fellows, Philadelphia: John C. Winston, page 10:
synonyms: at sea
bewildered
confused
distracted
glosses: In a state of confusion, bewilderment, or distraction.