floaters

Noun

floater (plural floaters)

1. A person who physically floats in a gas or liquid.
   • Great God of VVaters [i.e., Neptune], vvhoſe extended Svvay / Is next to his, vvhom Heav'n and Earth obey: / Let not the Suit of Venus thee diſpleaſe, / Pity the Floaters on th' Ionian Seas.1717, Laurence Eusden, “Book IV. [Alcithöe and Her Sisters Transform’d to Bats.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 126
2. (slang) A corpse floating in a body of water.
   • A dock worker saw him floating against a dock pier and called the police. Condition of the body they thought a floater that had been hit by a boat and cut by the prop.2017 September 18, E. J. Stauffer, chapter 3, in The Drowning, Bloomington, Ind.: Archway Publishing, →ISBN
3. (figuratively) A person who frequently changes where they live; a drifter, a vagrant.

   Synonyms:

   bum, stiff, casual, clochard, derelict, dero, down-and-out, down-and-outer, drifter, epithite

4. (figuratively) A person who frequently changes employment.
5. (figuratively) An employee of an organization who does not have fixed tasks to do but fills in wherever needed, usually when someone else is away; also, a short-term employee; a temporary, a temp.
   • 'The murdered girl was working for us, for the department.' / 'A floater?' / 'No. Permanent; warranty contract; the lot.'1967, Len Deighton, chapter 14, in An Expensive Place to Die, London: Hamlyn Publishing Group for the Companion Book Club, →OCLC, page 90
6. (figuratively) An "extra" (male) guest at a party who is asked by the host to entertain the other (often female) guests.

See all 26 meanings of floater