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
Efforts to refloat it have been unsuccessful so far.
From BBC ● May 23, 2025
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
The crew of the submarine made great efforts to refloat the vessel, but were unsuccessful.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, August 8, 1917 by Various
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
The ferry, a 70m long medium-speed catamaran, was later refloated and berthed at St Margaret's Hope.
From BBC ● May 8, 2023
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
"This will mean the boats in the immediate area are refloating, and navigation along other affected areas will be restored."
From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2025
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
The president says he asked the canal chief what the most challenging aspect of refloating the vessel might be.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 6, 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.
