buoy
Nautical. a distinctively shaped and marked float, sometimes carrying a signal or signals, anchored to mark a channel, anchorage, navigational hazard, etc., or to provide a mooring place away from the shore.
a life buoy.
to keep afloat or support by or as if by a life buoy; keep from sinking (often followed by up): The life jacket buoyed her up until help arrived.
Nautical. to mark with a buoy or buoys.
to sustain or encourage (often followed by up): Her courage was buoyed by the doctor's assurances.
to float or rise by reason of lightness.
Origin of buoy
1Other words for buoy
Words that may be confused with buoy
- boy, buoy
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use buoy in a sentence
Usually one or two things are going all right, and it buoys your spirits a little bit.
MAC is likely to be quite costly to operate—the P-8A carries many more buoys than a P-3, and the buoys are more complex.
The channel for vessels is marked by buoys, and there are two lighthouses at the north and two at the south entrance to the port.
The Philippine Islands | John ForemanEvery yacht sailing in a race must carry at least two life buoys ready for immediate use.
Yachting Vol. 2 | Various.There was also a submerged network of wire and chains, kept in place by floating buoys.
The Boys of '61 | Charles Carleton Coffin.
The late season has left no great store of such buoys to mark the fair channel to success.
The Onlooker, Volume 1, Part 2 | VariousHe sent hundreds of bottles and buoys to be dropped into the seven seas by fighting craft and merchantmen.
Historic Fredericksburg | John T. Goolrick
British Dictionary definitions for buoy
/ (bɔɪ, US ˈbuːɪ) /
a distinctively shaped and coloured float, anchored to the bottom, for designating moorings, navigable channels, or obstructions in a body of water: See also life buoy
(tr usually foll by up) to prevent from sinking: the belt buoyed him up
(tr usually foll by up) to raise the spirits of; hearten
(tr) nautical to mark (a channel or obstruction) with a buoy or buoys
(intr) to rise to the surface
Origin of buoy
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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