dead-man's float

noun

Swimming.

1. a prone floating position, used especially by beginning swimmers, with face downward, legs extended backward, and arms stretched forward.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dead-man's float¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

I slept all day, face down in the pillow, a comfortable dead-man’s float only remotely disturbed by a chill undertow of reality—talk, footsteps, slamming doors—which threaded fitfully through the dark, blood-warm waters of dream.

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Westley had instructed her on how to behave if this happened, and she followed his words now: she spread her arms and spread her fingers and forced herself into the position resembling that of a dead-man’s float in swimming, all this because Westley had told her to because the more she could spread herself, the slower she would sink.

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“You must hold it till I find you,” he had said; “you must go into a dead-man’s float and you must close your eyes and hold your breath and I’ll come get you and we’ll both have a wonderful story for our grandchildren.”

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Cade assumed a faceup dead-man’s float in the middle of the pool.

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