Floater

[f. as prec. + -ER.] One who or that which floats.

  1.  a. In intransitive senses of the vb.

1717.  Eusden, Ovid’s Met., IV.

1831.  Blackw. Mag., XXX. July, 15/1. Halcyons all, fair floaters hung in the sunshine on waveless seas.

1882.  Sir R. Payne Gallwey, Fowler in Irel., ii. 27. They [ducks] get no chance of quiet from the floaters, who cannot be brought to see what great mutual benefit would accrue from such an armistice.

1883.  H. Stopes, Malt, xi. 133. The proportion of floaters [= ‘floating corns’] depends partly upon the quality of the grain, but mainly upon the methods of screening adopted.

  b.  transitive senses.

1783.  Useful Projects, in Ann. Reg., 95/1. I consulted my meadow floaters.

1868.  Yates, The Rock Ahead, II. II. iii. 122. The directors of banks, and the ‘floaters’ of ‘concerns,’ have, many of them, charming villas, magnificent mansions, or delicious snuggeries at Blackheath, Eltham, or Syndenham.

1889.  B. Björnson, Norway and Its People, in Harper’s Mag., LXXVIII. Feb., 432/2. In the great rivers, especially in the Glommen, the ‘floater’ has to wade out in the water, often to his shoulders, to cut loose with his axe the logs which have stuck fast, or to send them into the current with his boat-hook.

  2.  In various technical uses.

  a.  The floating diaphragm in Papin’s steam-engine.

1824.  R. Stuart, Hist. Steam Engine, 52. To perform the operations of filling the cylinder with water, elevating the piston or floater, and extruding the steam into the atmosphere.

  b.  (See quot.).

1857.  J. P. Nichol, Cycl. Phys. Sc., Floater. A contrivance indicating the height of level of a fluid in a vessel, whose depth we cannot at the time directly examine.

  c.  = FLOAT sb. 14.

1888.  Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Floater, a cart having the axle ‘cranked down,’ so that though the wheels are high the body is very near the ground.

  d.  Stereotyping. = floating-plate.

1882.  Southward, Pract. Printing, 566. The mould, with others, if necessary, is next placed, with the face downward, on the ‘floater,’ a plate of metal fitting on the inside of the ‘dipping pan.’

  3.  Stock Exchange. A government stock certificate, a railway-bond, etc., accepted as a recognized security.

1871.  Temple Bar Mag., XXXI. Feb., 320. On the Stock Exchange, where slang abounds, ‘floaters’ is a term which would puzzle outsiders. Floaters are exchequer bills and similar unfunded stock.

1883.  Pall Mall G., 3 May, 5/1. The chief use of floaters is … as a means by which banks … can raise money in the general market when they are short of funds…. To describe exactly what a floater is … would be a matter of some difficulty. Some … affect to consider that a Government bond to bearer, provided the Government be not in default, may be tendered as a floater; others draw the line at United States bonds.

  4.  U.S. a. A voter who has not attached himself to any political party, esp. one whose vote may be purchased.

1883.  H. George, Money in Elections, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXXVI. March, 203. ‘How many of them floaters?’—i. e. merchantable voters—continued the candidate. ‘Four hundred,’ was again the answer.

1888.  Pall Mall G., 5 Nov., 7/2. Expressions indicating the intention to buy the Indiana ‘floaters.’

  b.  One who is perpetually changing his place of abode; a vagrant.

1883.  W. H. Bishop, Among the Blue-grass Trotters, in Harper’s Mag., LXVII. Oct., 718/2. More often they are irresponsible floaters, broken-down German noblemen, perhaps, according to their own story, who profess to ability in this direction, and produce daubs of the most hopeless kind.

  c.  In Southern U.S.: A representative of several counties grouped together, and therefore not directly responsible to any one of them.

1853.  Texas State Gaz., 16 July (Farmer). A candidate for floater in the district composed of the counties of Fayette, Bastrop, and Travis.