floatier

Adjective

floaty (comparative floatier, superlative floatiest)

1. Tending to float on a liquid or to rise in air or a gas; buoyant.
   • [S]ome fevv buttes of beare being flotie they got, vvhich though it had lien ſix moneths vnder vvater vvas very good, […]1624, Iohn [i.e., John] Smith, “The Generall Historie of the Bermudas, Now Called the Summer Iles, from Their Beginning in the Yeere of Our Lord 1593. to This Present 1624. with Their Proceedings...
   1. (archaic) Of a ship: having a shallow draft (the depth from the waterline to the bottom of a vessel's hull), and thus drawing less (that is, floating higher in) water.
      • I then told my Lord of Eſſex that mine vvas a floaty ſhip and vvell appointed for that ſervice; […]a. 1610 (date written), Francis Vere, “The Calis-journey”, in William Dillingham, editor, The Commentaries of Sr. Francis Vere, Being Diverse Pieces of Service, wherein He had Command, […]...
2. (figuratively) Of music: light and relaxing.
   • All the floaty music in the world could not disguise my grunts [during a massage] as I clenched my teeth and curled my toes to fight the pain.2005 September 17, Adam Fresco, “Definitely knot one for the wimps”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2024
3. (figuratively) Of an object: light and flimsy or soft; specifically, of a dress: lightweight, so as to rise away from the body when the wearer is moving.
   • O here is a Bed / Shrinkproofer than that, / A floatier, boatier / Bed than that!1976, Sylvia Plath, “The Bed Book”, in The It-Doesn’t-Matter Suit and Other Stories, London: Faber & Faber, published 2014, →ISBN, page 78

   Synonyms:

   gossamer

4. (figuratively) Of a person: feeling calm, dreamy, happy, etc., as if floating in the air.
   • [A]s you stand on the steps of the Castle Green in this strange place, you feel quite floaty. This you are told is the scene of the Merthyr riots; and you feel still floatier as you body forth before your eyes a picture like the following— […]1851 March 22, “The Foreign Country at Home. IV. Abergavenny to Swansea.”, in Leigh Hunt, editor, Leigh Hunt’s Journal; a Miscellany for the Cultivation of the Memorable, the Progressive, and the...
5. (figuratively) Of speech or writing: overly complicated or elaborate; flowery, grandiloquent.
   • [William Butler] Yeats divests himself of his floatier fin-de-siècle rhetoric to discover a hard plain speech both properly twentieth century and pre-nineteenth century.2013, Adam Piette, “Modernist Victorianism”, in Matthew Bevis, editor, The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, part II (Literary Landscapes)...

See all 9 meanings of floaty