floatin'

Adjective

floating (not comparable)

1. That floats or float.
   • floating buoys
2. Not fixed in position, opinion etc.; free to move or drift.
   • The outcome of the forthcoming election is still unclear due to the large number of floating voters.
3. (or by extension any segment or feature) Present in the underlying phonological representation but not linked to an anchor on which it can surface.
   • Historically, there was an accompanying vowel, but synchronically, a mere "floating" high tone is posited. In stage (b) this high tone causes the preceding low tone to raise to a raised-low tone via the process of low-raising. Finally, in stage (c) the floating high tone is lost.1974, Larry M. Hyman, Russell G. Schuh, “Universals of Tone Rules: Evidence from West Africa”, in Linguistic Inquiry, volume 5, number 1, →JSTOR, page 86

See all 7 meanings of floating