1555 J. Heywood Two Hundred Epigrammes with Thyrde sig. A.vii^v Flotyng and fleetyng agree not there meete.

1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. viii. 112 A floting of a Vessell, at the pleasure of the winde.

1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία 391 While we are at Sea in the Floatings of this world.

1810–17 M. Wilks Hist. Sketches S. India (1869) I. xxii. 479 Hyder..observed a floating to take place along the whole mass [of cavalry].

1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. 76 The falling and floating of bodies.

1894 M. Grant in Cent. Mag. Jan. 354/1 ‘Jacking’ or ‘floating’ for moose is seldom practised.

1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ 270 Floating, or drowning, or watering of Meadows.

1883 R. Haldane Workshop Receipts 2nd Ser. 406 The washed clay is dried..and immediately ground to fine powder. The floating is done by hand or power.

1888 Daily Tel. 18 Oct. The successful floating of the Salt Union.

1600 R. Hakluyt tr. G. B. Ramusio in Princ. Navigations (new ed.) III. 415 We supposed that these floting weeds did grow vpon some rocke vnder the water.

1745 P. Thomas True Jrnl. Voy. South-Seas 256 The River is crouded..with a prodigious Number of Barks..which..make a Kind of floating City.

1781 W. Cowper Anti-Thelypthora 73 When..floating films envelop every thorn.

1793 T. Martyn Lang. Bot. sig. H4^v Floating leaf, folium natans. Lying flat on the surface of the water.

1819 P. Wakefield Excurs. N. Amer. (ed. 3) 25 There is one boat which, without exaggeration, may be denominated a floating palace.

1832 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. i. 84 Stomata are found..in floating leaves upon the latter [sc. the upper side] only.

1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville II. 215 The ice became broken and floating.

1838 Southern Literary Messenger 4 26/1 The noise of steam, and the dissonant voices of the crowd subside, and give place to the regular thump of the floating hotel [sc. a steamer].

1843 Knickerbocker 22 85 The Knickerbocker-Steamer, that floating palace of the Hudson.

1872 B. Jerrold London xxi. 187 Soothing a convict's last moments in the floating infirmary off Woolwich Dockyard.

1877 A. W. Bennett tr. O. W. Thomé Text-bk. Struct. & Physiol. Bot. iii. 73 The floating primary root of Trapa.

1878 A. Barlow Hist. & Princ. Weaving 104 In some kinds of figured weaving these floating threads are cut off.

1912 Chambers's Jrnl. 184/2 A floating factory means an old steamer of three to four thousand tons, a size which has annually been increased... By using the larger size of steamers the owners are able to fit them with plant not only for trying out the blubber..but also with plant for turning the carcasses into oil and guano.

1933 Discovery July 213/1 In 1930 floating factory ships, with their consorts the whale-catchers, were to be found encircling three-quarters of the Antarctic continent.

1966 Guardian 14 Mar. 18/5 Two floating hotels..to carry tourists upstream from Cairo to Aswan.

1966 Economist 22 Oct. 366/1 The Poles started out as specialists in modern trawlers, floating fish factories and base ships—with reinforced hulls for operation in Arctic waters—and they now rank second in this specialised field to Japan.

1967 C. D. Sculthorpe Biol. Aquatic Vasc. Plants iv. 72 Floating-leaved hydrophytes are generally unable to withstand severe winds and turbulent waters.

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball iii. vi. 321 This..groweth..in the brinkes of diches and floting waters.

1714 A. Pope Rape of Lock (new ed.) ii. 13 The Sun-beams trembling on the floating Tydes.

1806 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 15 273 A number of torn floating membranes.

1828 R. Knox tr. H. Cloquet Syst. Human Anat. 30 Twelfth Rib. This rib..has been called the floating rib.

1840 F. D. Bennett Narr. Whaling Voy. 175 Tentacles..spread out loose and floating.

1860 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. Floating Ribs, the last two of the false ribs, whose anterior extremities are not connected to the rest or to each other.

1879 J. M. Duncan Clin. Lect. Dis. Women ix. 95 There are achings in cases of what is called floating kidney.

1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. (at cited word) When the lever of a weigh-bridge or of a testing machine is in equal balance it is said to be floating.

1793 Literary & Biogr. Mag. May 393/2 The sums annually received by the Exchequer exceeding 1,000,000l. the floating capital in this country a like sum.

1816 M. Keating Trav. (1817) II. 180 Manual labour..is at present the floating capital of France.

1845 J. R. McCulloch Treat. Taxation iii. ii. 435 Variations in the amount of floating capital.

1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits x. 163 A thousand million of pounds sterling are said to compose the floating money of commerce.

1893 Daily News 15 Mar. 6/3 It appears that all the floating debt is secured by collateral securities.

2010 D. Vitiello & G. E. Thomas Philadelphia Stock Exchange ii. 49 It joined other insurance concerns in swelling the supply of floating capital on the Board of Brokers.

1839 Southern Literary Messenger 5 7/1 The packets, by their ‘floating policies of insurance’ offer another inducement to shippers.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 527/2 As it frequently happens that merchants desire to have all their shipments covered, by whatever vessel they may come, they require insurance in general terms; such a policy is termed a floating policy.

1959 Earl Jowitt & C. Walsh Dict. Eng. Law I. 814/2 Floating policy, a marine insurance policy issued to cover all shipments of goods by the assured by any vessel between specified places.

1964 H. G. Grubel World Monetary Reform 442/2 Floating exchange rates.

1970 P. Einzig (title) The case against floating exchanges.

1971 M. A. G. van Meerhaeghe Economics xii. 419 After 1931 several monetary units became floating currencies.

1971 Guardian 17 Aug. 3/6 The cumulative effect of the floating mark (now tantamount to an upward revaluation of more than 8 per cent) and the 10 per cent import surcharge means that German exports there will be 18 per cent dearer.