a. Also 6 boyent, 7 boyant. [perhaps ad. Sp. boyante in same sense, or OF. bouyant (app. also synonymous, though explained differently in Godef.); in Eng. it is app. older than BUOY v. See -ANT1.]
1. Having the power of floating, tending to float; floating.
1578. W. Bourne, Treas. for Trav., IV. x. The syde [of a ship] being rounde and full, it is the more boyenter a great deale.
1713. Derham, Phys. Theol., 442, note. The Air-Bladder [of a fish] makes the Body more or less buoyant.
1765. Wilkinson, in Phil. Trans., LV. 98. The buoyant power of cork in fresh water.
1792. Gentl. Mag., March, 210. Produced from seed buoyant in the atmosphere.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., I. 40/2. Filled with air, which renders the whole animal so buoyant that it floats on the surface.
b. Lightly elastic.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., I. 70/1. The quick and buoyant motions of the lively child.
c. fig. Tending to rise or keep up.
c. 1661. Mrq. Argyle’s Will, &c. in Harl. Misc. (1746), VIII. 30/2. His Vices were most notorious and boyant.
1808. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1869), 112. Religion is so noble and powerful a consideration—it is so buoyant and so unsubmergible.
1868. Rogers, Pol. Econ., xxi. (ed. 3), 282. That part of the public revenue is most buoyant.
2. Of liquid: Having the power of keeping bodies afloat on its surface.
1692. Dryden, Eleonora, Ded. (Globe). The water under me was buoyant.
1813. Byron, Br. Abydos, II. iii. These limbs that buoyant wave hath borne.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, I. 324. The buoyant waters of emotion and sentiment.
3. fig. Of the spirits: Easily recovering from depression, elastic, light. Of persons: Light-hearted, cheerful, hopeful.
a. 1748. Thomson, Wks. (1766), I. 130. Nerves … full of buoyant spirit.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 211/1. A man of buoyant and animated valour.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 338. My spirits were most buoyant after a temporary prostration.
1843. Prescott, Mexico (1850), I. 198. His buoyant spirits were continually breaking out in troublesome frolics.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. I. 105. The buoyant confidence of youth.
4. Comb., as buoyant-minded adj.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Charm. Sea, iii. 27. In a way that one or two of the more buoyant-minded of the party did not scruple to call very foolish.
