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
Derived 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.
"When we refloat an animal, we're assessing it in the water for the first time. Seeing it swim off strongly is exhilarating - it means it has a good chance."
From BBC • Mar. 9, 2026
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
Last week, cleanup crews were able to refloat the Dali and guide it back to port.
From Seattle Times • May 29, 2024
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
To the suggestion that salvage operations should be attempted to refloat the warship, the Government very wisely said no, they thought not.
From Sanders of the River by Wallace, Edgar
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.
