floater
Americannoun
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floaters
plural
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a person or thing that floats.
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Informal. a person who is continually changing their place of residence, employment, etc.
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an employee without a fixed job assignment.
One of our officers works as a floater, filling in when someone is out.
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U.S. Politics. a voter not attached to any party, especially a person whose vote may be purchased.
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a person who fraudulently votes, usually for pay, in different places in the same election.
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a speck or string that appears to be drifting across the eye just outside the line of vision, caused by cells or cell fragments in the vitreous humor registering on the retina; musca volitans.
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Also called floating policy. Insurance. a policy that insures movable personal property, covering a loss in any location.
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Finance. any security or note that has a floating rate.
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Medicine/Medical Slang. a corpse found floating in a body of water.
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Animal Behavior. a territorial animal that has been unable to claim a territory and is forced into undefended, marginal areas with limited resources.
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Australian. a meat pie served in a plate of gravy or pea soup.
noun
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a person or thing that floats
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any of a number of dark spots that appear in one's vision as a result of dead cells or fragments in the lens or vitreous humour of the eye
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a person of no fixed political opinion
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a person who votes illegally in more than one district at one election
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a voter who can be bribed
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Also called: floating policy. insurance a policy covering loss or theft of or damage to movable property, such as jewels or furs, regardless of its location
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informal a person who often changes employment, residence, etc; drifter
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a loose gold- or opal-bearing rock
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(esp in Adelaide) a meat pie in a plate of pea soup
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of floater
Explanation
Anything that can float on the surface of water is a floater. When you relax in a pool, floating on your back, you're a floater. If you throw pennies in the water, they'll sink, but a dollar bill will be a floater, as are dragonflies on a lake's surface and beach balls bobbing in the surf. A completely different floater is a tiny speck that seems to float across your vision, a small, nearly-translucent deposit on your eyeball of the sort that becomes fairly common as you get older. In US police slang, a floater is a body found in the water.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Brunson put New York in front for the first time with a floater that made it 105-104 with 1:22 remaining.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
D'Angelo Russell's floater lifted Dallas within 95-94 with 54.8 seconds remaining but Isaiah Hartenstein answered with a layup to give the Thunder a 97-94 edge.
From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2025
The Lakers turned the ball over on an offensive foul on their first possession, but Doncic settled the team down with a floater in the paint on the next possesion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2025
Plum had another chance to win it at the buzzer, but her floater rimmed out, sending the game to overtime.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2025
A floater might eat preformed organic molecules, or make its own from sunlight and air, somewhat as plants do on Earth.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
He speculated that the administration could “put a bunch of floaters out there” to gauge the market’s reaction different policy actions.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 21, 2026
There were blow-by layups, floaters, a rare three-pointer and an old-fashioned three-point play on a jumper he threw up while getting fouled and falling down along the baseline.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
Cameron Norrie has been handed a difficult start against Italy's Matteo Berrettini - a 2022 semi-finalist at Melbourne Park and one of the most dangerous unseeded floaters in the men's draw.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2025
The 10-time All-Star scored 15 points in the fourth, hitting five of his well-known floaters that were mostly absent in the first three games.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2024
Mr. Lemoncello surprised all the floaters by swinging open a window-sized door cut into the bookcases.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
