floating
/ˈfləʊtɪŋ
/adjective
1Buoyant or suspended in water or air: a floating platform...
- Numbers hit by global warming and loss of nest sites; floating water plantain is increasingly under threat from the re-opening of canals to heavy traffic.
- She tossed a floating toy into the water for her dog to fetch over and over.
- As I have said before rearing a family when you spend all your life on floating water weeds is a hazardous business.
Synonyms
buoyant, buoyed up, non-submerged, on the surface, above water, afloat, drifting
hovering, levitating, suspended, hanging, defying gravity
2Not settled permanently; fluctuating or variable: floating exchange rates...
- The mine ended as a failure, and to settle a floating indebtedness all movable equipment was sold in 1865.
- The larvae spend several months as floating zooplankton before settling down onto the reef.
- There is already a floating population of 100 million or more migrants seeking work in cities.
Synonyms
unsettled, not settled, not fixed, transient, temporary, variable, fluctuating;
migrant, wandering, nomadic, moving, on the move, migratory, travelling, drifting, roving, roaming, itinerant, gypsy, vagrant, vagabond
variable, changeable, changing, fluid, fluctuating, free, not fixed
informal up and down