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Float   Listen
noun
Float  n.  
1.
Anything which floats or rests on the surface of a fluid, as to sustain weight, or to indicate the height of the liquid surface, or mark the place of, something. Specifically:
(a)
A mass of timber or boards fastened together, and conveyed down a stream by the current; a raft.
(b)
The hollow, metallic ball of a self-acting faucet, which floats upon the water in a cistern or boiler.
(c)
The cork or quill used in angling, to support the bait line, and indicate the bite of a fish.
(d)
Anything used to buoy up whatever is liable to sink; an inflated bag or pillow used by persons learning to swim; a life preserver.
(e)
The hollow, metallic ball which floats on the fuel in the fuel tank of a vehicle to indicate the level of the fuel surface, and thus the amount of fuel remaining.
(f)
A hollow elongated tank mounted under the wing of a seaplane which causes the plane to float when resting on the surface of the water. "This reform bill... had been used as a float by the conservative ministry."
2.
A float board. See Float board (below).
3.
(Tempering) A contrivance for affording a copious stream of water to the heated surface of an object of large bulk, as an anvil or die.
4.
The act of flowing; flux; flow. (Obs.)
5.
A quantity of earth, eighteen feet square and one foot deep. (Obs.)
6.
(Plastering) The trowel or tool with which the floated coat of plastering is leveled and smoothed.
7.
A polishing block used in marble working; a runner.
8.
A single-cut file for smoothing; a tool used by shoemakers for rasping off pegs inside a shoe.
9.
A coal cart. (Eng.)
10.
The sea; a wave. See Flote, n.
11.
(Banking) The free use of money for a time between occurrence of a transaction (such as depositing a check or a purchase made using a credit card), and the time when funds are withdrawn to cover the transaction; also, the money made available between transactions in that manner.
12.
A vehicle on which an exhibit or display is mounted, driven or pulled as part of a parade. The float often is based on a large flat platform, and may contain a very elaborate structure with a tableau or people.
Float board, one of the boards fixed radially to the rim of an undershot water wheel or of a steamer's paddle wheel; a vane.
Float case (Naut.), a caisson used for lifting a ship.
Float copper or Float gold (Mining), fine particles of metallic copper or of gold suspended in water, and thus liable to be lost.
Float ore, water-worn particles of ore; fragments of vein material found on the surface, away from the vein outcrop.
Float stone (Arch.), a siliceous stone used to rub stonework or brickwork to a smooth surface.
Float valve, a valve or cock acted upon by a float. See Float, 1 (b).






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Float" Quotes from Famous Books



... Float a bit of magnetic ore in a pail of water, or suspend a bit of magnetized steel by a thread, and these currents make the ore or needle point north and south. Now let waves buffet either side, typhoons roar, and maelstroms whirl; we have, out ...
— Among the Forces • Henry White Warren

... about a mile behind. Hurrah, we are first in! We race into the market square, crowds of people, and halt at the Government Buildings. Up with the Vierkleur! Ah, the proud exultation of seeing our own flag once more float over the ancient capital! Women press around, young and old, beautiful alike in pure emotion of patriotic joy, eager ...
— With Steyn and De Wet • Philip Pienaar

... gazed, Lord Ernest Strathmore came up, said something, and whirled her off in the waltz. Away they flew. Lord Ernest waltzed to perfection, and she—a French woman or a fairy only could float like that. ...
— The Baronet's Bride • May Agnes Fleming

... high authority, for Monsieur Janssen has studied the weather all his life, and knows the atmosphere of mountain peaks and of the airy levels where balloons float; yet if he could have foreseen what was to occur on Mont Blanc within twenty hours, he would have wished me the good fortune of being ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. VI., No. 6, May, 1896 • Various

... Nautilus has run aground at a moment when the sea is full. Now then, the tides aren't strong in the Pacific, and if you can't unballast the Nautilus, which seems impossible to me, I don't see how it will float off." ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne

... the party was a broad, scow-like float, with low sides, steady, and of considerable capacity. At the bow was a raised platform, covered with gravel, on which stood a fire-jack. The crew were lying on the silent water, engaged with their lines, when Bart ...
— Bart Ridgeley - A Story of Northern Ohio • A. G. Riddle

... sworn alliance was now dead. It was while the siege of this city was taking place that Bishop Jerome was favored by a vision of St. Isidro, who predicted they would take the city, a promise verified in 1085, when the Cid's was the first Christian banner to float above its walls. Our hero now became governor of this town, but, although he continued to wage war against the Moors, his successes had made the courtiers so jealous that they induced the king to imprison ...
— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber

... great sea pig leaped, for his shape was plain to me. The shoal went its way, and after it the harmless porpoises. But the sea was fairly alight now; all round me it shone with its soft glow, and my body was wondrous with it, and I seemed to float in naught ...
— A King's Comrade - A Story of Old Hereford • Charles Whistler

... took me to the shore, and left me high and dry, though half dead with fear. I got on my feet and made the best of my way for the land; but just then the curve of a huge wave rose up as high as a hill, and this I had no strength to keep from, so it took me back to the sea. I did my best to float on the top, and held my breath to do so. The next wave was quite as high, and shut me up in its bulk. I held my hands down tight to my side, and then my head shot out at the top of the waves. This gave me heart and breath too, and soon my feet felt ...
— Robinson Crusoe - In Words of One Syllable • Mary Godolphin

... is a river, and man is the boat That over its surface is destined to float; And joy is a cargo so easily stored, That he is a fool ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat

... arriving at that moment of intoxication when things lose their baldness and immobility, and the world begins to float like an enchanted island in a beautiful blood-warm haze. Nothing could be more agreeable than the first approaches of this blessed state; he encouraged it, anticipating with ecstasy each stage in the mounting of the illusion. ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair

... in the jungle, after the destruction of the different towns of Patusen and Undop, had emerged from their hiding-places, and, embarking on rafts, half-ruined boats, or, in short, anything that would float, were in the act of tiding and working their passage toward the extensive and flourishing town of Bunting. Their dismay can well be imagined, when, at daylight on the morning of the 29th, they found themselves carried by the tide close alongside the long, black, terror-spreading steamer, and ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel

... reached one of those sweet pastures by the river's bank which, as we have read, delight the simple mind of the angler, and his float was already out, and bobbing up and down on the ripples of the stream; and the verdant valley, in which he and his taciturn companion stood side by side, resounded, from time to time, with Dangerfield's strange harsh laughter; ...
— The House by the Church-Yard • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... voice trembled, and the good natured, bubbling humor, which had floated down the smooth channel of his talk, vanished as bubbles do when they float out into the ...
— The Bishop of Cottontown - A Story of the Southern Cotton Mills • John Trotwood Moore

... of the cow bunting, with a stinging human significance. Taking the interloper by the nape of the neck, I deliberately drop it into the water, but not without a pang, as I see its naked form, convulsed with chills, float downstream. Cruel? So is Nature cruel. I take one life to save two. In less than two days this pot-bellied intruder would have caused the death of the two rightful occupants of the nest; so I step in and turn things into ...
— Wake-Robin • John Burroughs

... Government, they sold her to the Italians. I remember the launch at Barrow quite well," he said. "It was a mighty fine show, with the Italian Ambassador and his wife—the Magnifico Pomposo, they called her, I think it was—and there was speechifying and hurraying and enough champagne drunk to float her. That was just three years ago: a ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, January 7, 1914 • Various

... pernicious, that is so delightful while it lasts. These are the rare moments of life. To be young and ardent, in the midst of an Italian spring, and to believe in the moral perfection of a beautiful woman—what an admirable situation! Float with the current; I'll stand on the brink ...
— The Diary of a Man of Fifty • Henry James

... eliminated, what good will it do us as long as Tia Juana remains under cover? Do you understand the situation? We're overcapitalized right now to the limit; we've watered the stock until it would float a fleet of battle-ships and we're dangerously near ...
— The Fifth Ace • Douglas Grant

... athwart the face of light Float the clouds of sullen Night! Odin's warriors watch for me By the earth-encircling sea! The water's dirges howl my knell; ...
— Antonina • Wilkie Collins

... possesses one superiority over other centres of civilization. I do not know of any other city in the world where the elements of art, science, and all kinds of human ideas seem to float in the air to be assimilated by the human brain. Almost unconsciously it imbibes not only the newest ideas in the sphere of intellect, but also loses some of its onesidedness, broadens out, becomes more civilized. I say again, civilized, because in Italy, Germany, ...
— Without Dogma • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... meantime they sent him up the gulch to find some "float." He had wandered away from camp thirty miles before he remembered that he didn't know what float looked like. Then he thought he would go back and inquire. He got lost while in a dark brown study and drifted into the bosom of the unknowable. He didn't miss the ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... to be two-thirds full of slightly warmed water, and a rose geranium leaf or a slice of lemon should float upon the surface of each. The fingers of one hand at a time are to be dipped in the water, rubbing the leaf or lemon between them to remove any odor of food, and then ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke

... we'll build a larger boat Of English breed, no Teuton shams, Where sheltered animals shall float, The lion couchant with the lambs: See from the cabin's open door What mild-faced dromedaries pour! What SHEMS are these? what host arrives Of gentler JAPHETS with their wives? What antelopes? ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 16, 1914 • Various

... Eugene Wrayburn took a coffee-house dinner together in Mr Lightwood's office. They had newly agreed to set up a joint establishment together. They had taken a bachelor cottage near Hampton, on the brink of the Thames, with a lawn, and a boat-house; and all things fitting, and were to float with the stream through the summer and ...
— Our Mutual Friend • Charles Dickens

... happier idea came to me. "You need never fear a shipwreck. All you need do is just slip off some or all of your clothes, take the necessary amount of luggage in your hand, and float up in ...
— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

... season, thousands of women come from the island of Lewis to gut the myriad herring that are daily brought into the bay. There is an extemporised town for the strangers on the outskirts, over which float many odours, weird, pungent, and unsavoury. All the processes of gutting, curing, and kippering go on in grand style. The women, clad in a kind of oilskin, handle their dangerous implements in most dexterous fashion. It is a horrid business, but well paid. Prolific Nature is never tired supplying ...
— Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland • Daniel Turner Holmes

... wanders a little he always returns to the question with vigour, and freshness. He has no written sermons; a few notes are sufficient for him; he does not believe in long discourses; he has an idea that it is better to say a little and let it be well understood than float into immensity, let off fireworks there, and dumfounder everybody. But he has his faults. He has quite as much confidence in himself as is requisite for the present. He is rather too impervious and too oracular; but then who would not be if they had the chance? We like him well ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus

... believe that fears are like those little fugitive gliding things that seem to dart across the field of the eye when it is weak and ailing, vague clusters and tangles and spidery webs, that float and fly, and can never be fixed and truly seen; and that they are best treated as we learn to treat common ailments, by not concerning ourselves very much about them, by enduring and evading them and ...
— Where No Fear Was - A Book About Fear • Arthur Christopher Benson

... even if you'd been alone, because you must have seen how the lay of the ice ran for yourself. But I hope we don't strike another place like that above. I don't think we shall, though they cut ice and let it float down till it gets opposite the town; but that's done only on one side, as ...
— Fred Fenton Marathon Runner - The Great Race at Riverport School • Allen Chapman

... strange and terrible, and sufficient to appal a heart stronger than that of a boy who had suffered from a long and severe illness. The darkness seemed to float as it were in a thick transparent body upon the surface of the sea, while far above the stars shone out clearly and spangled the sky ...
— Yussuf the Guide - The Mountain Bandits; Strange Adventure in Asia Minor • George Manville Fenn

... pray to Saint Leonard to bear us up this day! Twenty of my shipmen are bailing with buckets, but the water rises on them fast. The vessel may not float ...
— Sir Nigel • Arthur Conan Doyle

... the subject, won't you?" begged Nick, turning as red in the face as a turkey cock. "My time will come, and I'm going to astonish you fellows. Why, I can float right now, though perhaps you ...
— Motor Boat Boys Mississippi Cruise - or, The Dash for Dixie • Louis Arundel

... herbs, and barks which enter into the prescription have been thus gathered the doctor ties them up into a convenient package, which he takes to a running stream and casts into the water with appropriate prayers. Should the package float, as it generally does, he accepts the fact as an omen that his treatment will be successful. On the other hand, should it sink, he concludes that some part of the preceding ceremony has been improperly carried out and at once sets about ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney

... rowing on the lake, and the Tree Day dancing. In the early years, the class crews used to row on the lake and sing at sunset, in their heavy, broad-bottomed old tubs; and from these casual summer evenings "Float" has been evolved—Wellesley's water pageant—when Lake Waban is dotted with gay craft, and the crews in their slim, modern, eight-oared shells, display their skill. This is the festival which the public knows best, for unlike Tree Day, to which outsiders have ...
— The Story of Wellesley • Florence Converse

... New Night Lamp.—Mothers who have timid little ones will appreciate the new night lamp, the apparatus of which may be carried to the country in a trunk or handbag. This apparatus consists of a small wooden float through which passes a tiny wick. An ordinary china teacup is half filled with cottonseed oil, the little floating wick placed in this, and a match touched to the upright wick. While the sides of the cup prevent thc direct light of the flame being ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... element thereof, and therefore saith he, when they be heaved into the water, the water refuseth to receive them into her bosome, (they being such Miscreants to deny their baptisme) and suffers them to float, as the Froath on the Sea, which the water will not recieve, but casts it up and downe till it comes to the earthy element the shore, and there leaves it ...
— The Discovery of Witches • Matthew Hopkins

... He looked back down the vista of the years, and found therein no hope for the future. One after the other all the patent medicines in creation had failed him. Smith's Supreme Digestive Pellets—he had given them a more than fair trial. Blenkinsop's Liquid Life-Giver—he had drunk enough of it to float a ship. Perkins's Premier Pain-Preventer, strongly recommended by the sword-swallowing lady at Barnum and Bailey's—he had wallowed in it. And so on down the list. His interior organism had simply sneered at the lot ...
— The Man with Two Left Feet - and Other Stories • P. G. Wodehouse

... hard-faced skipper, "God help us all! She will not float till the turning tide!" Said his wife, "My darling will hear my call, Whether in sea or heaven she bide:" And she lifted a quavering voice and high, Wild and strange as a sea-bird's cry, Till they shuddered ...
— East and West - Poems • Bret Harte

... near me, it would be too much happiness! I should die, I think. Nevertheless, come to us very soon. Your chamber awaits you. It is as blue as the heavens in which I float. I have already told you this, but I ...
— Monsieur de Camors, Complete • Octave Feuillet

... the subject of America. I will be much obliged to you, if you will direct me where I shall find the best information of what is to be said on both sides. It is a subject vast in its present extent and future consequences. The imperfect hints which now float in my mind, tend rather to the formation of an opinion that our government has been precipitant and severe in the resolutions taken against the Bostonians[867]. Well do you know that I have no kindness for that race. But nations, or bodies of men, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... fine weather we enjoyed, we seemed to float in true fairyland, each succeeding view seeming more and more beautiful, the one we chanced to have before us the most surprisingly beautiful of all. Never before this had I been embosomed in scenery so hopelessly beyond description. To sketch picturesque bits, definitely bounded, is ...
— Travels in Alaska • John Muir

... and moon for seeds. As melts the iceberg in the seas, As clouds give rain to the eastern breeze, As snow-banks thaw in April's beam, The solid kingdoms like a dream Resist in vain his motive strain, They totter now and float amain. For the Muse gave special charge His learning should be deep and large, And his training should not scant The deepest lore of wealth or want: His flesh should feel, his eyes should read ...
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... the ear the solemn note Of prayer and praises heavenward float, A butterfly with brilliant wings A lesson full of meaning brings, A sermon ...
— Old Times at Otterbourne • Charlotte M. Yonge

... memory of her forest dream had never passed away, and through trial and temptation she had been true, and kept her resolution still unbroken; seldom now did the warning bell sound in her ear, and seldom did the flower's fragrance cease to float about her, or the fairy light to brighten ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... state of the tree named Ashlew, half immortal but rooted to one spot, unable to float on a breeze or through space itself on the pressure of light. Especially, it was unable to insinuate any part of itself into the control center of another form of life, as a second spore was taking charge of the body of Chief Slichow at that ...
— The Talkative Tree • Horace Brown Fyfe

... believed that skilful management alone could save the sail-boat, and the lives of those who were in her. His mission, as he understood it, was to supply this needed skill. The steamer had only a single boat on deck, which was so dried up by the sun, that none of the salt-water tars believed it would float. She had only a single pair of oars, and it would be impossible to make any headway against the gale in it. The captain declared that he could only save the imperilled voyagers by running alongside their boat, and taking ...
— Down the Rhine - Young America in Germany • Oliver Optic

... cow that served a little household and followed the children, lowing, to reedy meadows bathed by limpid streams—a horse caught browsing in a peaceful vale, thinking no ill—great trees hurling destruction with them. Rafters, roofs of houses, sometimes a battered corpse, float by. ...
— The Italians • Frances Elliot

... lighted den below. In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy's fancy, and how she feared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float away when her slight hold ...
— The Trimmed Lamp • O. Henry

... de Louvois (who did not like me) had lavished his incense upon me, in order that some fumes of it might float up to the prince. He saw me beloved and, as it were, almost omnipotent; he sought my alliance with ardour. The family of Le Tellier is good enough for a judicial and legal family; but what bonds are there between the Louvois and the Mortemart? No ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... lifted loop Of cloud-veil upward cast? With sea-veiled limbs, a sleeping group Of Nereids dreaming past. Swim on, my boat; who knows but I, Ere night sinks to her grave, May see in splendour pale float by The Venus of ...
— A Hidden Life and Other Poems • George MacDonald

... who, fain to dry the tear, and soothe the choking throat, Would burn those tokens of the hearth that fondly o'er us float; They cannot trace amid the gloom each dainty spire and whorl, But smoke, to the true poet's eye, is never ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., Dec. 20, 1890 • Various

... obvious that they had not intended for him to die or they would not have taken care of him in his illness. The shaven head was proof. But he saw nothing that he could do. He must wait upon the action of his jailers. Having come to this conclusion he lay upon his pallet, and let vague thoughts float through his head ...
— The Texan Star - The Story of a Great Fight for Liberty • Joseph A. Altsheler

... into the sea," he replied, "you do not want to feel your way. You know that the waves will bear her up, and you send her forth boldly. As wood will float upon water, so will commerce float on the ocean ...
— The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson - By One of the Firm • Anthony Trollope

... glasse vessel, close shut, for the space of a month, in which time they will be dissolved into a liquor; then distil them in balneo till all be dry. Then put the same quantity of ants as before; do this three times, then aromatize the spirit with cinnamon. Note, that upon the spirit will float an oil which must be separated. This spirit (continues the inventor) is of excellent use to stir up the animal spirits insomuch that John Casimire, Palsgrave of the Rhine, and Seyfrie of Collen, general against the Turks, did always drink thereof when they went to fight, to increase ...
— Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction • John Davenport

... Down into the cold, coal-black water? And then, in the spring, to float up to the surface, all horrible and unrecognisable, ...
— A Doll's House • Henrik Ibsen

... be caught close to the surface, at mid-water and at the bottom, and as a rule vegetable baits, such as boiled macaroni, or ragworms are found to answer best. Usually ground-baiting is necessary, and the finer the tackle used the greater is the chance of sport. Not a few anglers fish with a float as if for river fish. The fish runs up to about 8 lb in weight. The cod (Gadus morhua) grows larger and fights less gamely than any of the fish already mentioned. It is generally caught with bait used on the bottom from ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 • Various

... restrains it. Expansion through flexible movement is the important point to consider. When the tone is thus sung, it should result in the removal of all restraint, especially from the face, jaw, and throat. In this way the tone will come freely to the front, and will flow or float as long as the level of the tone is maintained ...
— The Renaissance of the Vocal Art • Edmund Myer

... one side has dumped with a rush, of its falling straight down from its original height, so breaking the sleigh; that a thin slice of salt pork well peppered is good when tied about a sore throat; that choking a horse will cause him to swell up and float on the top of the water, thus rendering it easy to slide him out on the ice from a hole he may have broken into; that a tree lodged against another may be brought to the ground by felling a third against it; that ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White

... saying I wouldn't spear a fried egg with some vim if it happened to float past. But there's plenty of time for that. Lots of doctors say you oughtn't to eat breakfast, and Indian fakirs go without food for days at a time in order to develop their souls. Shall I take you back to wherever you're ...
— The Little Warrior - (U.K. Title: Jill the Reckless) • P. G. Wodehouse

... Lac's juvenile parties?—I made quite a romance about him; and that young Austrian—I forget his name—whom we met at Stuttgart, Baron Holdenberg's nephew; he was charming, to say nothing of Lohengrin and Tannhauser. I have quite a long list of loves, Ada. Oh, I should like to dance again! To float round to the music of a delightful ...
— A Crooked Path - A Novel • Mrs. Alexander

... flows toward the Winkie Country," said he; "and so, if we had a boat, or a raft, the river would float us there more quickly and more easily ...
— The Patchwork Girl of Oz • L. Frank Baum

... voice suddenly called from the shore behind her, "Here, girl, girl! Stop that. Be quiet, and probably you'll float in." ...
— The Opened Shutters • Clara Louise Burnham

... that the Lord was coming that very night. But the Lord did not put in an appearance, and the robes were laid up in lavender again. A fat matron trying to fly in that outfit would be a sight worth seeing. It would take several angels to float some of them. Even the archangel Michael ...
— Flowers of Freethought - (First Series) • George W. Foote

... by hoping that the colors would ever float victorious, and said that he did not doubt it, and then our skipper made a little speech in reply. The affair wound up with a round of cheers and general congratulations. The flags were handsome, and, as it came to pass, they flaunted ...
— A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" • Russell Doubleday

... fertile country, particularly rich in pasturage. The Aure, which washes its walls, is a small and insignificant streamlet, and though the city is within five miles of the sea, yet the river is quite useless for the purposes of commerce, as not a vessel can float in it. The present population of the town consists of about ten thousand inhabitants, and these have little other employment than lace-making.—Bayeux wears the appearance of decay: most of the houses are ordinary; and, though some of them are built of ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) • Dawson Turner

... Sabbath bells. It was a beautiful and touching arrangement of the olden time to erect the House of Prayer in the centre of "God's Acre," that the shadow of its belfry and the Sabbath voice of its silvery bells might float for centuries over the family circles lying side by side in their long homes around the sanctuary. There was a good and tender thought in making up this sabbath society of the living and the dead; in planting the narrow pathway ...
— A Walk from London to John O'Groat's • Elihu Burritt

... unbounded. It inspired in the more sanguine splendid visions of maritime command and glory. The Mediterranean should speedily become a Roman lake, in which no vessel might float without the ...
— A General History for Colleges and High Schools • P. V. N. Myers

... those dogs have caught her, [3]the red flag of the people will float on a barricade in[3] every street till we find her! It was foolish of her to go to the Grand Duke's ball. I told her so, but she said she wanted to see the Czar and all his cursed brood ...
— Vera - or, The Nihilists • Oscar Wilde

... still planning; crosses the wall by a certain stone that he has used ever since he was a cub fox; seems to float across an old pasture, stopping only to run about a bit among some cow tracks, to kill the scent; and so on towards his big hill. Before he gets there he will have a skilful retreat planned, back to ...
— Ways of Wood Folk • William J. Long

... fisher-boat, Tossed lightly on the silver sea; Around the rocks, in air, afloat The white gulls circle lazily. A tiny boat, a fisher-boat— The fisher draws his slender line; He half in dream-land seems to float. Saying, 'to-morrow will ...
— Veronica And Other Friends - Two Stories For Children • Johanna (Heusser) Spyri

... accomplishment of an angler. We behold him, fixed as a statue, on the bank; his head inclining towards the river, his attention upon the water, his eye upon the float; he often draws, and draws only his hook! But although he gets no bite, it may fairly be said he is bit: of the two, the fish display the most cunning.—He, surprized that he has caught nothing, and I, that he has kept his rod and ...
— An History of Birmingham (1783) • William Hutton

... rested on the slope of a high and sombre moorland, scattered with granite and china-clay; and by the small town of Ponteglos, where it widened out into arable and grey pasture-land, the Cuckoo river grew deep enough to float up vessels of small tonnage from the coast at the spring tides. I have seen there the boom of a trading schooner brush the grasses on the river-bank as she came before a southerly wind, and the haymakers stop and almost crick their necks staring up at her top-sails. But between the ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... mind to go to the bank of the river which ran into the great cave, where, considering the river with great attention, I said to myself, This river, which runs thus under the ground, must come out somewhere or other. If I make a float, and leave myself to the current, it will bring me to some inhabited country, or drown me. If I be drowned, I lose nothing, but only change one kind of death for another; and if I get out of this fatal place, I shall ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Volume 1 • Anonymous

... skin. The women in the boats, in blue or red flannel skirts, with umbrellas, red or blue, opened over their heads and gleaming under the burning sun, leaned back in their chairs at the stern of the boats, and seemed almost to float upon the water, ...
— Yvette • Henri Rene Guy de Maupassant

... long journey, like a dull, oppressive dream, Across the empty prairies till I caught the distant gleam Of a city in the beauty of its broad and shining stream On whose bosom, flocked together, float the mighty swans ...
— The Complete Works • James Whitcomb Riley

... principal. It has been told of him that it was all taken away from him at cards, but such was not the truth. Some went in an Indian bank in which he invested it. A portion was lost at cards. But with some of it,—the larger part as I think,—he endeavoured, in concert with his stepfather, to float a newspaper, which failed. There seem to have been two newspapers in which he was so concerned, The National Standard and The Constitutional. On the latter he was engaged with his stepfather, and in carrying that on he lost the ...
— Thackeray • Anthony Trollope

... on it, took the stream, and he was so strong that it could not prevail against him till at length he was rather more than half-way across and the water swept above his shoulders. Now he was lifted from his feet and, letting the staff float, he swam for his life, and with such mighty strokes that he felt little of that icy cold. Down he was swept—now the lip of the fall was but three fathoms away on his left, and already the green water boiled beneath him. A fathom from him was the corner of Sheep-saddle. ...
— Eric Brighteyes • H. Rider Haggard

... lofty nave, far down and out of jarring distance from the over-gorgeous splendour of the modern transept. In Holy Week, towards evening at the Tenebrae, the divine tenor voice of Padre Giovanni, monk and singer, soft as a summer night, clear as a silver bell, touching as sadness itself, used to float through the dim air with a ring of Heaven in it, full of that strange fatefulness that followed his short life, till he died, nearly twenty years ago, foully poisoned by a layman singer in envy of a gift not matched in the ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford

... daily dust Of moving men, I move a moat Within the sunbeam where we float, With mutual needs ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... we come we know not; and whither we are going, who can tell? We float out our life in the mid-ocean, with the warm sunshine above our heads, and the warm gulf-stream below; and that is enough for us. Yes; perhaps we have seen the water-babies. We have seen many strange things ...
— The Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby • Charles Kingsley

... thou feel Of the spent and fearful seal Wounded by the hunter's steel. I am Membril,—hark to me: Better times await on thee! Wouldst thou clasp thy mother dear,— Strange things see and stranger hear? Straight betake thee to thy boat And to yonder haven float,— Go thy way, and silent be,— It is Membril counsels thee; Go thy way, and thou ...
— The Holy Cross and Other Tales • Eugene Field

... white clouds float up from the great waters at the borders of the world, and clustering about the mountain terraces of the horizon, shall be broken and hardened by thy cold. Then will they shed downward, in rain-spray, the water of life, even into the hollow places of my lap. For in my lap shall nestle our ...
— Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest • Katharine Berry Judson

... comedy the following play was given: first appeared a boy in woman's clothes who represented Virtue, and another in the character of Fortune. They began to banter each other as to which was the mightier, whereupon Fame suddenly appeared, standing on a globe which rested on a float, upon which were the words, "Gloria Domus Borgiae." Fame, who also called himself Light, awarded Virtue the prize over Fortune, saying that Caesar and Ercole by Virtue had overcome Fortune; thereupon ...
— Lucretia Borgia - According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day • Ferdinand Gregorovius

... as our pattern of obedience. 'As in heaven,' refers perhaps to the visible universe, which has always left on thoughtful minds the impression of beauty and order, and is the great revelation in nature of the omnipotent will of God. There clouds float on in peacefulness obeying Him, there stars burn and planets roll on their mighty revolutions. 'These all continue this ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren

... one upon another. Mica, more especially, has the cleavage phenomenon developed to a degree which transcends its development in any other known substance. We can cleave it and again cleave it till its flakes float in the air, and we may yet go on cleaving it by special means till the flakes no longer reflect visible light. And not less remarkable is the uniplanar nature of its cleavage. There is little cleavage in any ...
— The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays • J. (John) Joly

... ethereal meat The papers call 'the intellectual treat;' Songs, speeches, toasts, around the festive board Drowned in the juice the College pumps afford; For only water flanks our knives and forks, So, sink or float, we swim without the corks. Yours is the art, by native genius taught, To clothe in eloquence the naked thought; Yours is the skill its music to prolong Through the sweet effluence of mellifluous song; Yours the quaint trick to cram the pithy line That cracks so crisply over bubbling wine; And since ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... of the free heart's hope and home, By angel hands to valor given, Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's ...
— Graded Memory Selections • Various

... even in unhappiness, called aloud for solitude. He must struggle alone through his deep waters: waters of the soul, wherein float neither life-preserver nor raft, rope or even light; neither coral reef nor oozy grave, for such as he. Darkness and struggle alike lasted till the end of his strength; but, with exhaustion and the coming of dawn, came at last one mighty ...
— The Genius • Margaret Horton Potter

... pulled in his oars and let the dory float amid the ripples. The bottom of white sand, patterned over with coloured pebbles, was clear and distinct through the dark-green water. Mary Stella leaned over to watch the distorted reflection of her face by ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1905 to 1906 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... me is in a boat, An' sailin' on the matrimonial sea. 'E sez as 'ow 'e 'opes we'll allus float In peace an' joy, from storm an' danger free. Then muvver gits to weepin' in 'er tea; An' Auntie Liz sobs like a winded colt; An' Cousin Lil comes 'round an' kisses me; Until I feel I'll 'AVE to ...
— The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke • C. J. Dennis

... shore, and by two large frigates moored across the mouth of the harbour. Thus they were effectually secured from any attempts of small vessels; and as for large ships, there was not water sufficient to float them within fighting distance of the enemy. On the whole, this battle, in which a very considerable number of lives was lost, may be considered as one of the most perilous and important actions that ever happened in any war between ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... They float into the ward bearing the sense of heat and dust, and of the bumping of the saddle. The dairyman has perhaps put me a bit against ...
— A Diary Without Dates • Enid Bagnold

... Did you feel that?" (A puff had caught the schooner, and he was forced to put the wheel up rapidly to keep her out of the wind.) "'Tis no egg-shell'll float on this sea an hour come, an' it's a stroke iv luck for them we're here to ...
— The Sea-Wolf • Jack London

... significant silence, "indeed, I have prayed there might be. In some little nook among the pines, where the brook for ever sings and the petals of the apple blossoms glide away to fairyland upon its shining surface, while butterflies float lazily here and there, if reverent hands might put the flowering of my genius into a modest little book—I should ...
— At the Sign of the Jack O'Lantern • Myrtle Reed

... a huge spreading camphor tree, a graceful form was there, clear cut against the dark foliage, and seeming to float upon the tender green of the dewy grass. A nymph—a goddess, shyly standing there, was shading her eyes with one slender hand and gazing down the path toward the golden East which was bringing to the Lady of his dreams, a flood of golden sunlight and her secret adorer, the man whose ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage

... band, which played selections from Sullivan varied with dance music, or in reading a novel from the book-lender's,—that is to say, gazing idly at the page, and letting such significance as it possessed float upon her thoughts. ...
— In the Year of Jubilee • George Gissing

... the song did float and fade, As failing sunshine soft, in woodland glade. And Lilith, listening, heard—so wild, so shrill, Yet dream-like, far, again that tinkling rill In Paradise. And o'er her spirit swept A sadness bitter-sweet, ...
— Lilith - The Legend of the First Woman • Ada Langworthy Collier

... are singing to-day, When you look back, and forgetfully wonder What you were like in your work and your play; Then, it may be, there will often come o'er you Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song,— Visions of boyhood shall float them before you, Echoes of dreamland ...
— The Hill - A Romance of Friendship • Horace Annesley Vachell

... the captain. 'Didn't know we had ladies on board. Well, Sally, oblige me by hauling down that rag there. I'll do the same for you another time.' He watched the yellow bunting as it was eased past the cross-trees and handed down on deck. 'You'll float no more on this ship,' he observed. 'Muster the people aft, Mr Hay,' he added, speaking unnecessarily loud, 'I've a word to ...
— The Ebb-Tide - A Trio And Quartette • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... lunch, and sometimes at dinner too. This soup is called gazpacho, and it is made with Spanish olive oil, vinegar, tomato juice and ice water. Very fine bread crumbs help make it thick, and little pieces of fresh, cold tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, olives and onions float on top. ...
— Getting to know Spain • Dee Day

... high," the chief said, pointing to a twig that had been freshly cut off two feet from the ground. "Always shoot low at man behind bush. Man cannot float in air." ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day's demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume IX. • Benjamin Harrison

... 'tis pleasure enough To have a sup of such goodly stuff— To float away in a sky of fog, And swim the while in a sea of grog; So, high or low, Let the world go, The how-d'ye-do boy don't ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... only gibber back at him; and Foreman kept right on and managed some way to float himself on to the million mark. There the tide turned, and after all these years it's still running his way; and Sowers, against his ...
— Old Gorgon Graham - More Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son • George Horace Lorimer

... to get it along. It took eight hundred men to move it, and so slowly did it go that these eight hundred men worked three months in getting it to the landing. There they made a great platform, and so rolled it on board the float. There was a steamer at hand to take it in tow, and it was brought to France. It then took five or six months to bring it across the country from the ...
— Rollo in Paris • Jacob Abbott

... brush from my hand, and it seemed to have hardly touched the canvas when the ugly heaviness of my tiresome black began to disappear. There came into it grey and shimmering lights, the shadows filled up with air, and silk seemed to float and rustle. There was no method-there was no trick; he merely painted. My palette was the same to him as his own; he did not prepare his palette; his colour did not exist on his palette before he put it on the canvas; but working under the immediate dictation ...
— Modern Painting • George Moore

... Beebe was just crawling out of the pond, On whose surface garments of an intimate nature did float; while George, the world-weary George, shouted to Freddy that he had hooked ...
— A Room With A View • E. M. Forster

... gallant head, Like banners in the air, Shall float full many a daring hope, And many a ...
— Vignettes in Verse • Matilda Betham

... your being upset; this heat somehow seems to soak into a fellow and melt all the go out of one. I'm as soft as one of those medusae—jellyfish—what do you call them?—that float by opening and shutting themselves, all of a wet gasp, ...
— Hunting the Skipper - The Cruise of the "Seafowl" Sloop • George Manville Fenn

... hills she lies,— The city of our love! Within her, pleasant homes arise; And healthful airs and happy skies Float peacefully above. ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Vol. II, No. 6, March, 1885 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various

... swell up like a toad if I ate only one apple hurriedly. I don't dare think what might happen to me if I ate three or four in that way. I might possibly find myself transformed into a human balloon and float away into space. But I don't eat apples that way—not now. Some who read these pages may think it very strange, yet it is quite true that there really are persons suffering with "nerves" who have not gumption enough to follow this simple rule of chewing all food to a cream. I despair ...
— How to Eat - A Cure for "Nerves" • Thomas Clark Hinkle

... trifle with. And so all through the following long winter she vexed my righteous soul with her wilfulness and pride. An appeal to her father was idle. She would wind her long, thin arms about his neck and let her waving red hair float over him until the old man was quite helpless to exert authority. The Duke could do most with her. To please him she would struggle with her crooked letters for an hour at a time, but even his influence and authority had ...
— The Sky Pilot • Ralph Connor

... across the wreck. For had the balloon made its final descent into the lake, it would have been only after the basket was utterly empty, all the loose cordage cut away, and a type of wreck left that would float for weeks or months and would almost certainly have been found. Indeed, for months afterwards the writer and many others of Donaldson's friends held high hopes of hearing of him returned in safety from some remote distance in the wilds. But this ...
— The Red-Blooded Heroes of the Frontier • Edgar Beecher Bronson

... quaffing the sparkling wine, exchanging repartee with his obsequious followers, it was as though the petals and calyx of his soul were all open to receive the first insidious spore of evil that might float past on the sultry air. That is why some of us dare not enter the theatre, or encourage others to enter. This is not the place to enter into a full discussion of the subject; but, even when a play may be deemed inoffensive ...
— John the Baptist • F. B. Meyer

... singer's "throat seems to be open"; the tones impress the hearer as being in some way "forward in the singer's mouth," and not at the vocal cords; the voice "seems to be supported" somewhere; the tones float out freely on the breath. A harsh and badly produced voice seems to be held in the singer's throat by main force. The critical hearer feels instinctively that such a singer's voice would be greatly improved if the tones could only be supported in a forward position in ...
— The Psychology of Singing - A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern • David C. Taylor

... face, haggard and white, and was bound with cords. Suddenly he freed himself, and dashed down the slope into the darkness. He was pursued and brought back, and the cries of his pursuers mingled with an appalling scream for help which seemed to float down the mountain side to where she lay, filling ...
— The Moon Rock • Arthur J. Rees

... Gardner, is there any way those people can get out on the other side of the Reserve, down the West Fork? You know the backwater above the little dam, two miles below the big dam? Most of the timber we intended to float out that way, to the mill at the little dam. They may have gone on ...
— The Sagebrusher - A Story of the West • Emerson Hough

... trying to think," said Belle, slowly. "A bread board wouldn't float, you know, even if the baby would sit on it. We've not got a ...
— Poor, Dear Margaret Kirby and Other Stories • Kathleen Norris

... whose life is wrought In movements of melodious thought; In symphony, great wave on wave— Or fugue, elusive, swift, and grave; A singing land, whose lyric rhymes Float on the air like village chimes: Music and Verse—the deepest part Of a whole nation's thinking heart! * * * * * Oh land of Now, oh land of Then! Dear God! the ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Sept. 12, 1917 • Various

... float along ceaselessly on a postwar boom until it collapses. It is not enough merely to prepare to weather a recession if it comes. Instead, government and business must work together constantly to achieve more and more jobs and more and more production—which ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Harry S. Truman • Harry S. Truman

... densest forests, and climb her loftiest mountains, and discover her richest treasures. The Sun of righteousness, and the star of peace shall break upon her sin-clouded vision, and smile upon her renewed households The anthem of the Redeemer's advent shall float through her forests, and be echoed by her mountains. Those dusky children of the desert, who now wander and plunder, will settle to quiet occupations of industry. Gathering themselves into villages, plying the labors of handicraft and agriculture, ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams



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