floor

[flawr, flohr]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR floor ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

that part of a room, hallway, or the like, that forms its lower enclosing surface and upon which one walks.

a continuous, supporting surface extending horizontally throughout a building, having a number of rooms, apartments, or the like, and constituting one level or stage in the structure; story.

a level, supporting surface in any structure: the elevator floor.

one of two or more layers of material composing a floor: rough floor; finish floor.

a platform or prepared level area for a particular use: a threshing floor.

the bottom of any more or less hollow place: the floor of a tunnel.

a more or less flat extent of surface: the floor of the ocean.

the part of a legislative chamber, meeting room, etc., where the members sit, and from which they speak.

the right of one member to speak from such a place in preference to other members: The senator from Alaska has the floor.

the area of a floor, as in a factory or retail store, where items are actually made or sold, as opposed to offices, supply areas, etc.: There are only two salesclerks on the floor.

the main part of a stock or commodity exchange or the like, as distinguished from the galleries, platform, etc.

the bottom, base, or minimum charged, demanded, or paid: The government avoided establishing a price or wage floor.

Mining. an underlying stratum, as of ore, usually flat.

Nautical.

the bottom of a hull.
any of a number of deep, transverse framing members at the bottom of a steel or iron hull, generally interrupted by and joined to any vertical keel or keelsons.
the lowermost member of a frame in a wooden vessel.

verb (used with object)

to cover or furnish with a floor.

to bring down to the floor or ground; knock down: He floored his opponent with one blow.

to overwhelm; defeat.

to confound or puzzle; nonplus: I was floored by the problem.

Also floorboard. to push (a foot-operated accelerator pedal) all the way down to the floor of a vehicle, for maximum speed or power.

Idioms

mop/wipe the floor with, Informal. to overwhelm completely; defeat: He expected to mop the floor with his opponents.

take the floor, to arise to address a meeting.

Origin of floor

before 900; Middle English flor, Old English flōr; cognate with Old Norse flōr, Middle Low German vlōr, Middle High German vluor (German Flur)

Related formsfloor·less, adjectiveun·der·floor, nounun·floor, verb (used with object)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for floored

baffle, stump, dumbfound, bewilder, level, beat, overthrow, puzzle, drop, disconcert, down, discomfit, fell, conquer, flatten, defeat, prostrate, nonplus, throw, ground

Examples from the Web for floored

Contemporary Examples of floored

“I am just floored by this,” Jo Farrell, now 83, told The Denver Post eight years ago when the allegations first surfaced.
‘I Saved My Friend From Bill Cosby’
Lloyd Grove
December 3, 2014
“I was floored,” says neurosurgeon Paulo Niemeyer, who had contacted Batista for the event.
The Rise And Fall Of Brazilian Billionaire Eike Batista
Mac Margolis
November 9, 2013
She says she went in assuming progress would be made but was floored by “the unanimous support” from the full committee.
LGBT Caucus Finds Cause for Celebration at the Democratic Convention
Michelle Cottle
September 4, 2012
We are hip to your covert, altruistic acts, but there are many close to you who will be floored by your stealthy, saintly ways.
The Stars Predict Your Week
Starsky + Cox
September 10, 2011
Lipsyte was floored that Talese would place that kind of bet on a young writer, and he stayed at the Times.
On the Peninsula
Bryan Curtis
April 25, 2011

Historical Examples of floored

I turned and floored a feller that was too pressing, and hollered it was all right too.
Stories of a Western Town
Octave Thanet
It was a bare place, a shed which had been a stable and was now floored and ceiled.
The Christian
Hall Caine
As well as I could see by the light of the candle, it was floored, and panelled with black oak.
A Master of Mysteries
L. T. Meade
He floored me at Brasenose: but I bear the old cock no malice.
The Adventures of Harry Revel
Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
I thought that would have floored even Talleyrand; but not at all.
The Rose of Old St. Louis
Mary Dillon

British Dictionary definitions for floored

floor

noun

Also called: flooring the inner lower surface of a room

a storey of a buildingthe second floor

a flat bottom surface in or on any structurethe floor of a lift; a dance floor

the bottom surface of a tunnel, cave, river, sea, etc

mining an underlying stratum

nautical the bottom, or the lowermost framing members at the bottom, of a vessel

that part of a legislative hall in which debate and other business is conducted

the right to speak in a legislative or deliberative body (esp in the phrases get, have, or be given the floor)

the room in a stock exchange where trading takes place

the earth; ground

a minimum price charged or paida wage floor

take the floor to begin dancing on a dance floor

verb

to cover with or construct a floor

(tr) to knock to the floor or ground

(tr) informal to disconcert, confound, or defeatto be floored by a problem

Word Origin for floor

Old English flōr; related to Old Norse flōrr, Middle Low German vlōr floor, Latin plānus level, Greek planan to cause to wander

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for floored

floor

early 15c., "to furnish with a floor," from floor (n.). Sense of "puzzle, confound" is 1830, from notion of "knock down to the floor" (1640s). Related: Floored; flooring.

floor

Old English flor "floor, pavement, ground, bottom (of a lake, etc.)," from Proto-Germanic *floruz "floor" (cf. Middle Dutch and Dutch vloer, Old Norse flor "floor," Middle High German vluor, German Flur "field, meadow"), from PIE *plaros "flat surface" (cf. Welsh llawr "ground"), enlarged from *pele- (2) "flat, to spread" (see plane (n.1)).

Meaning "level of a house" is from 1580s. The figurative sense in legislative assemblies (as opposed to the platform) is first recorded 1774. Spanish suelo "floor" is from Latin solum "bottom, ground, soil;" German Boden is cognate with English bottom. Floor plan attested from 1867.

Idioms and Phrases with floored

floor

see ground floor; mop up the floor with; sink through the floor; take the floor; walk the floor.