refloat
Americanverb (used with object)
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to put (a boat or a beached whale) back into the water.
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to reintroduce or re-establish (an idea, project, business, etc.), often on a new or better footing.
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to issue again.
Other Word Forms
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:
On the way back south, it spent four days unloading cargo from the Thamesborg, the vessel grounded in the Franklin Strait, to help refloat it before the onset of new ice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025
It urged members of the public not to refloat turtles, because the reptiles are likely to be hypothermic and in need of medical attention.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2024
The canal authorities said they managed to refloat and tow away the BW Lesmes, while efforts were underway to remove the Burri from the waterway.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
By 3:30 p.m. local time, rescue teams decided to euthanize the surviving animals “on welfare grounds,” after it was determined that rough waves and shallow beach conditions made it unsafe to refloat them.
From New York Times ● Jul. 17, 2023
I lost much time in my search, for the larger logs which had been driven ashore had got wedged, and required more than one man's strength to refloat them.
From Murder Point A Tale of Keewatin by Dawson, Coningsby
On Tuesday the Pacemaker, the boat left hanging over the hole's edge following the collapse, was officially refloated after being pulled a few feet back to safety by a winch system on 24 December.
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2026
It was only barely refloated by rescue vessels before new ice formed, which would have trapped it over winter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2025
The Dali is currently scheduled to be refloated during high tide on Tuesday, officials said over the weekend.
From Seattle Times ● May 13, 2024
Treasury Department sanctions being refloated in Indonesia is filled with Venezuelan fuel, according to vessel monitoring services.
From Reuters ● Nov. 10, 2022
Blue Team’s sixteen lost ships, which were lying at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, were refloated.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
New recruits get to practise refloating an animal of that size using a life-sized two tonne replica pilot whale, which is filled with air and water.
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2026
Crews will have to remove all that before refloating the stationary ship and guiding it back into the Port of Baltimore.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2024
This new strategy would take about two weeks, the Coast Guard said, adding that it offered “the best chance of successfully refloating the Ever Forward.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2022
Eslam Negm, 33, who worked on its salvage efforts, said the success in refloating the ship in March made him “feel like I was a part of something huge.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 7, 2021
Along the banks logs grounded, and were rolled over by their own momentum into places so shallow as to discourage any hope of refloating them unless by main strength.
From The Riverman by White, Stewart Edward
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.
