1. [adj]  borne up by or suspended in a liquid; "the ship is still floating"; "floating logs"; "floating seaweed"
2. [adj]  inclined to move or be moved about; "a floating crap game"
3. [adj]  hanging or moving freely in air; "floating thistledown"; "floating banners"
4. [adj]  continually changing especially as from one abode or occupation to another; "a drifting double-dealer"; "the floating population"; "vagrant hippies of the sixties"

Floating
Presents simple hands-on experiments that demonstrate why some objects float and others sink.

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1. \Float"ing\, a.
   1. Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a
      wreck; floating motes in the air.
   2. Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating
      ribs in man and some other animals.
   3. Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as,
      floating capital; a floating debt.
            Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been
            withdrawn in great masses from the island.
                                                  --Macaulay.
   {Floating anchor} (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail.
   {Floating battery} (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the
      hulls of ships, chiefly for the defense of a coast or the
      bombardment of a place.
   {Floating bridge}.
      (a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor
          of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau
          bridge. See {Bateau}.
      (b) (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one
          projecting beyond the lower one, and capable of being
          moved forward by pulleys; -- used for carrying troops
          over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of a fort.
      (c) A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by
          means of chains which are anchored on each side of a
          stream, and pass over wheels on the vessel, the wheels
          being driven by stream power.
      (d) The landing platform of a ferry dock.
   {Floating cartilage} (Med.), a cartilage which moves freely
      in the cavity of a joint, and often interferes with the
      functions of the latter.
   {Floating dam}.
      (a) An anchored dam.
      (b) A caisson used as a gate for a dry dock.
   {Floating derrick}, a derrick on a float for river and harbor
      use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor
      improvements, etc.
   {Floating dock}. (Naut.) See under {Dock}.
   {Floating harbor}, a breakwater of cages or booms, anchored
      and fastened together, and used as a protection to ships
      riding at anchor to leeward. --Knight.
   {Floating heart} (Bot.), a small aquatic plant ({Limnanthemum
      lacunosum}) whose heart-shaped leaves float on the water
      of American ponds.
   {Floating island}, a dish for dessert, consisting of custard
      with floating masses of whipped cream or white of eggs.
   {Floating kidney}. (Med.) See {Wandering kidney}, under
      {Wandering}.
   {Floating light}, a light shown at the masthead of a vessel
      moored over sunken rocks, shoals, etc., to warn mariners
      of danger; a light-ship; also, a light erected on a buoy
      or floating stage.
   {Floating liver}. (Med.) See {Wandering liver}, under
      {Wandering}.
   {Floating pier}, a landing stage or pier which rises and
      falls with the tide.
   {Floating ribs} (Anat.), the lower or posterior ribs which
      are not connected with the others in front; in man they
      are the last two pairs.
   {Floating screed} (Plastering), a strip of plastering first
      laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the
      coat.
   {Floating threads} (Weaving), threads which span several
      other threads without being interwoven with them, in a
      woven fabric.
   

2. \Float"ing\, n.
   1. (Weaving) Floating threads. See {Floating threads}, above.
   2. The second coat of three-coat plastering. --Knight.
   

3. \Float"ing\, n.
   The process of rendering oysters and scallops plump by
   placing them in fresh or brackish water; -- called also
   {fattening}, {plumping}, and {laying out}.