floater

/ˈfloʊdər/

/ˈflʌʊtə/

Other forms: floaters

Anything that can float on the surface of water is a floater. When you relax in a pool, floating on your back, you're a floater.

If you throw pennies in the water, they'll sink, but a dollar bill will be a floater, as are dragonflies on a lake's surface and beach balls bobbing in the surf. A completely different floater is a tiny speck that seems to float across your vision, a small, nearly-translucent deposit on your eyeball of the sort that becomes fairly common as you get older. In US police slang, a floater is a body found in the water.

Definitions of floater

1. noun

   an object that floats or is capable of floating
   types:

   berg, iceberg

   a large mass of ice floating at sea; usually broken off of a polar glacier

   growler

   a small iceberg or ice floe just large enough to be hazardous for shipping

   type of:

   object, physical object

   a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow
2. noun

   a swimmer who floats in the water
   type of:

   bather, natator, swimmer

   a person who travels through the water by swimming
3. noun

   spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in the vitreous humor and lens
   “floaters seem to drift through the field of vision”

   synonyms: musca volitans, muscae volitantes, spots

   type of:

   symptom

   (medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease
4. noun

   an employee who is reassigned from job to job as needed
   type of:

   employee

   a worker who is hired to perform a job
5. noun

   a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support
   synonyms: drifter, vagabond, vagrant

   types:

   beachcomber

   a vagrant living on a beach

   sundowner

   a tramp who habitually arrives at sundown

   bum, hobo, tramp

   a disreputable vagrant

   dosser, street person

   someone who sleeps in any convenient place

   type of:

   have-not, poor person

   a person with few or no possessions

   bird of passage, roamer, rover, wanderer

   someone who leads a wandering unsettled life
6. noun

   a debt instrument with a variable interest rate tied to some other interest rate (e.g. the rate paid by T-bills)
   type of:

   certificate of indebtedness, debt instrument, obligation

   a written promise to repay a debt
7. noun

   an insurance policy covering loss of movable property (e.g. jewelry) regardless of its location
   synonyms: floating policy

   type of:

   insurance, insurance policy, policy

   written contract or certificate of insurance
8. noun

   a voter who votes illegally at different polling places in the same election
   type of:

   elector, voter

   a citizen who has a legal right to vote