a. [f. FLOAT v. + -ABLE. Cf. Fr. flottable.]
1. Capable of floating; that may be set afloat.
1846. Pope’s Jrnl. Trade, 576 (Advt.). Floatable and buoyant in the water.
1883. Miss Broughton, Belinda, I. I. ix. 164. On this wooden bridge Sarah is standing, employed in dropping bits of stick—little lilac sprays, anything floatable that comes handy—into the earth-reddened stream on one side, and then rushing headlong over to the other to see them come sailing and whirling through.
2. Of a river or stream: That can be floated on; capable of supporting floating objects. Chiefly U.S.
1826. Kent, Comm. (1873), III. 414. The owners of the lands on rivers not navigable or floatable (flottable) have the exclusive right of fishing therein, as well as the exclusive ownership of the soil composing the bed of the river.
1884. Law Rep., 9 App. Cases, 393. They [the streams] were made navigable and floatable for timber during freshets by the improvements of the respondent.
3. absol. passing into sb. Something that floats or may be floated.
1864. Laws of Michigan, 23. To allow the free passage of boats, vessels, crafts, logs, timber, lumber, or other floatables along such waters.
Hence Floatability [see -ITY], the quality of being floatable.
1884. Law Rep., 9 App. Cases, 393. The right given by the statute applies to all streams and all parts of them, whether floatability is the result of improvements or not.
