floater

noun33

1. •
   A thing which floats.
2. •
   A person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role.
3. •
   (figurative) A person who frequently changes where they live; a drifter, a vagrant.
4. •
   (figurative) A person who frequently changes employment.
5. •
   (figurative) An employee of an organization who does not have fixed tasks to do but fills in wherever needed, usually when someone else is away; also, a short-term employee; a temporary, a temp.

   • 'The murdered girl was working for us, for the department.' / 'A floater?' / 'No. Permanent; warranty contract; the lot.' — 1967
6. •
   (figurative) A voter who shifts their allegiance from one political party to another, especially (US) one whose vote can be illegally purchased.
7. •
   (figurative) A player not affiliated with a team.
8. •
   A threadlike speck in the visual field which seems to move, possibly caused by degeneration of the vitreous humour of the eye.
9. •
   eye floater
10. •
    A person who floats.
11. •
    A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.

    • Great God of VVaters [i.e., Neptune], vvhose extended Svvay / Is next to his, vvhom Heav'n and Earth obey: / Let not the Suit of Venus thee displease, / Pity the Floaters on th' Ionian Seas. — 1717
12. •
    (slang) A corpse floating in a body of water.

    • A dock worker saw him floating against a dock pier and called the police. Condition of the body they thought a floater that had been hit by a boat and cut by the prop. — 2017
13. •
    A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.
14. •
    (vulgar) A piece of faeces which floats.

    • He left a floater in the toilet.
15. •
    A ball that moves lightly through the air, as if floating; specifically (basketball), an early layup taken by a player moving towards the rim where, upon release, the ball floats in the air over the top of a defender before dropping softly into the hoop.

    • The floater is a high arcing shot that is commonly used to get the ball over taller defenders in the paint. — 2014
16. •
    A spinning delivery of the ball that travels in a high arched path.
17. •
    (figurative) Clipping of floating rate bond.
18. •
    A small suet dumpling put into soup.

    • About an hour later a ration lorry found them, and the men were woken again, this time to a good meal of bully stew and floaters – suet dumplings – followed by cold rice pudding with jam. — 2009
19. •
    (Australia) Ellipsis of pie floater (“a meat pie served floating in a bowl of thick green pea soup”).
20. •
    (slang, figurative) A person who attaches themselves to a group of people, and who repeatedly shows up at group activities even though this is undesired by the group; a hanger-on.
21. •
    A thing which moves from place to place, as if floating.
22. •
    (slang, figurative) A book circulated between prisoners which is not part of the official prison library.
23. •
    (figurative) A manoeuvre in which a surfer transitions above the unbroken face of a wave on to the lip, or on top of the breaking section of the wave.
24. •
    (India) A waterproof sandal.

    • Replace your leather sandals with rubber slippers, sandals or floaters. They don't soak water well and why in this world would you want to spoil your expensive leather footwear in puddles? — 2017
25. •
    (figurative) An insurance policy covering movable property at more than one location or which may be in transit.
26. •
    (US, figurative) A person who votes illegally in various electoral districts or polling places, either under a false voter registration or under the name of a properly registered voter who has not yet voted.
27. •
    (slang, figurative) A mistake or misstep; a faux pas.

    • I must let her know I'm here and put her in touch with the general situation so she will be warned against making any floaters. — 1949
28. •
    (figurative) A frame with space between the artwork and the frame itself.
29. •
    A river mussel (genus Anodonta).
30. •
    (figurative) An "extra" (male) guest at a party who is asked by the host to entertain the other (often female) guests.
31. •
    (figurative) A coin which does not spin when thrown in the air.
32. •
    (US, figurative) A criminal sentence which is suspended so long as the convicted person leaves an area.
33. •
    (US, figurative) A person, such as a delegate to a convention or a member of a legislature, who represents an irregular constituency, such as one formed by a union of the voters of two counties neither of which has a number sufficient to be allowed one (or an extra) representative of its own.