floater

noun floaters

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. figuratively A person who frequently changes where they live; a drifter, a vagrant.

   Similar: bum, stiff, casual, clochard, derelict, dero, down-and-out, down-and-outer, drifter, epithite, floater, gadling

4. figuratively A person who frequently changes employment.
5. figuratively 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.'
6. figuratively An "extra" (male) guest at a party who is asked by the host to entertain the other (often female) guests.
7. figuratively, slang 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.
8. figuratively A voter who shifts their allegiance from one political party to another, especially (US) one whose vote can be illegally purchased.
9. US, figuratively 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.
10. US, figuratively 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.
11. figuratively A player not affiliated with a team.
12. A river mussel (genus Anodonta).
13. 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.
14. vulgar A piece of faeces which floats. He left a floater in the toilet.
15. A threadlike speck in the visual field which seems to move, possibly caused by degeneration of the vitreous humour of the eye.

    Similar: musca volitans

16. 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.
17. Australia, abbreviation, ellipsis Ellipsis of pie floater (“a meat pie served floating in a bowl of thick green pea soup”).
18. 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?
19. dated, figuratively, slang A mistake or misstep; a faux pas. Suddenly, for no reason, in the middle of the night, or even in the middle of the jolliest party, she would remember an ancient floater—just like that, à propos de bottes—would remember and be overcome by a feeling of self-reproach and retrospective shame. […] One could do one's best; but one could

    Similar: blunder, false move, false step, stumble, aberration, bloomer, blooper, boner, boo-boo, break, clanger, cock-up

20. abbreviation, clipping, figuratively Clipping of floating rate bond
21. figuratively An insurance policy covering movable property at more than one location or which may be in transit.
22. figuratively, slang A book circulated between prisoners which is not part of the official prison library. One prisoner came to me and asked if I had anything to read. As I hadn’t, he said he would bring me some reading. The next day he arrived with two serious books under his shirt. ‘Floaters’ [i.e. unofficially circulated books] had also come into the prison: you could either find them in the library,
23. figuratively eye floater
24. figuratively 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.
25. figuratively A spinning delivery of the ball that travels in a high arched path.
26. figuratively A coin which does not spin when thrown in the air. [Rule] 477.(1) The boxer for a game of triple penny two-up, or a floor manager, may declare a spin invalid if the spin is a floater. […] [Rule 477.](6) In this section—"floater" means a spin in which at least 1 of the coins does not turn over in the air at least once.
27. US, figuratively A criminal sentence which is suspended so long as the convicted person leaves an area. ["]Suppose I should tell you that there's a permanent order in the sheriff's office, left there by the old sheriff, that if I ever use your name or admit I'm your wife I'll get a floater out of the county and out of the state. Does that tempt you?" / "Tempt me to do what?" / "To get me floated and t
28. figuratively A frame with space between the artwork and the frame itself.