afloat

Etymology

a- + float

adv

1. Floating.
   A rubber duck and other toys were afloat in the bath.
   You have so little Brains, that a Penn’orth of Butter melted under ’um, would set ’um afloat: 1668, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all, London: H. Herringman, act II, page 22
   Oh why is heaven built so far, / Oh why is earth set so remote? / I cannot reach the nearest star / That hangs afloat. 1881, Christina Rossetti, “De Profundis”, in A Pageant and Other Poems, London: Macmillan, page 60
2. In a vessel at sea or on another body of water.
   […] that trade […] may likewise employ many useful hands both ashore and afloat, 1788, Alexander Jardine, Letters from Barbary, France, Spain, Portugal, &c., London: T. Cadell, Volume 2, Letter 23, p. 236
   Navy chow ashore is rarely as good as it is afloat, and for enlisted men it is usually much worse. 1947, James Michener, “The Strike”, in Tales of the South Pacific, New York: Dial, published 2014, page 315
3. (of hair or clothing) Floating in the air; flowing freely; not tied, braided, etc.
   unbound silvery-gold tresses afloat beneath a jeweled coronet 1971, Poul Anderson, chapter 4, in The Broken Sword, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1981, page 11
4. Covered with water (bearing floating objects).
   The decks are afloat.
   1695, Edmund Gibson (translator), Camden’s Britannia, London: A. Swalle, “Staffordshire,” […] it [the River Dove] overflows and lays the meadows afloat in April, like another Nile
   The yard was afloat. Jody looked out of the window and saw two drowned biddies floating about with upturned bellies. 1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 19, in The Yearling, New York: Scribner, page 233
5. (figurative) Covered, overspread (with or in something).
   The larch-wood was afloat with clear, lyric green, 1911, D. H. Lawrence, The White Peacock, London: Heinemann, Part 2, Chapter 2, p. 233
   The world was afloat in primrose light, pale and exquisite. 1935, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Mistress Pat, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, published 1937, page 100
   The lobby was afloat with men, single and married, meeting pretty women in bright dresses and pants suits, single and married. 1979, Bernard Malamud, Dubin’s Lives, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, Part 1, p. 51
6. (of an organization) Having enough money to continue to operate; (of a private individual, family, etc.) able to pay one's expenses, able to keep one's head above water.
   The donation will keep our business afloat for quite a while.
   […] you nede not to be sorye, as thoughe your frendely liberalitie had not be very acceptable vnto me. I haue receaued euery thing, and now I am afloate, by your lyberall sendyng. 1549, Miles Coverdale, transl., The Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the New Testament, London: Edward Whitchurche, Volume 2, Philippians 4
   He […] endeavoured, by forcing himself into a lower path of life than any he had hitherto trod, to keep himself afloat, with the portion of some tradesman’s daughter, whom he meant to espouse. 1753, Tobias Smollett, chapter 54, in The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom, Edinburgh: Mundell & Son, published 1800, pages 306–307
   They somehow manage to keep "afloat," so as to obtain the needful funds to pay their passages and to purchase, tools and rations. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 191
   The clan handouts that kept other Somalis afloat were absent here, as the Yibros were so few and so poor. 2010, Nadifa Mohamed, Black Mamba Boy, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 67
7. (dated, of ideas, information, etc.) Being believed or discussed by many people; being passed from person to person.
   setting a lie aflote 1587, Raphael Holinshed et al., Holinshed’s Chronicles, volume 3, Edward I, page 298
   […] as this example set the discourse about witchcraft afloat, some people, troubled with a similar complaint, began to fancy themselves bewitched too. 1757, William Burke, Edmund Burke, An Account of the European Settlements in America, London: R. and J. Dodsley, Volume 2, Part 7, Chapter 4, p. 150
   […] I shall not be judged fairly; it will get afloat that I am not a good girl, 1878, Thomas Hardy, chapter 5, in The Return of the Native, volume 2, London: Smith, Elder, page 163
   […] she and I were accepted, whatever ugly rumours had been afloat in the past year, as man and wife. 1945, Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited, London: Chapman & Hall, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 243
8. (obsolete, of an emotional state) Stimulated, aroused.
   You’ll find, when once my passion is afloat, / The soul of Caesar, in a petticoat! 1769, Elizabeth Griffith, The School for Rakes, London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, Epilogue, page 92
   My half frozen blood and my fears again afloat made me tremble through every limb; 1794, Thomas Holcroft, chapter 6, in The Adventures of Hugh Trevor, volume 1, London: Shepperson and Reynolds, page 46
   No angry passions rise to disturb the silent progress of the work, […] no irritable humours are set afloat: 1821, William Hazlitt, Table-Talk, London: John Warren, Essay 1, page 3
9. (obsolete) In a state of confusion or bewilderment.
   1789, Edward Gibbon, letter to Lord Sheffield dated August 1789, in Miscellaneous Works, London: A. Strahan et al., 1796, p. 201, I know not what to say; my mind is all afloat; yet you will not reproach me with caprice or inconstancy.
   […] they knew how to abstain from the overdose of liquor that sets the brain afloat and loosens the tongue. 1878, John Berwick Harwood, chapter 17, in Helena Lady Harrogate,, volume 1, London: Richard Bentley, page 312
   […] he could correctly analyze and parse any sentence you could give him, no matter how complex; but when it came to talking he was all afloat. 1887, Harry Castlemon, chapter 1, in Our Fellows, Philadelphia: John C. Winston, page 10

prep

1. (obsolete) Floating on.
   early 1600s, John Webster and William Rowley, The Thracian Wonder, London: Thomas Johnson, 1661, Act I, Scene 1, But Huswife, as for you, / You with your Brat, wee’l send afloat the Main,
   […] great wee see must be the art and cunning of that man, that keeps him afloat the streame of Soveraigne favour, 1642, Robert Cotton, The Troublesome Life and Raigne of King Henry the Third, London: George Lindsey, page 5