flotage

Or float·age

[floh-tij]

noun

1. an act of floating.

2. the state of floating.

3. floating power; buoyancy.

4. anything that floats; flotsam.

5. the part of a ship above the water line.

flotage

/ ˈfləʊtɪdʒ /

noun

1. the act or state of floating; flotation

2. buoyancy; power or ability to float

3. objects or material that float on the surface of the water; flotsam

Word History and Origins

Origin of flotage¹

1620–30; float + -age; compare French flottage

Example Sentences

But I watched such words come out of my own mother’s and father’s mouths; I looked at their ink drawing of poor people snagging their neighbors’ flotage with long flood hooks and pushing the girl babies on down the river.

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This "sinker," as the young engineers called it, had been weighed, and it exactly conformed to the requirement of Ethan's figures; it was just sufficient to overcome the flotage power of the cask.

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