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nt or absurd report or story; a fabricated sensational report or statement; esp. one set afloat in the newspapers to hoax the public.

A floating perforated box for living fish. [U. S.] Car coupling, or Car coupler, a shackle or other device for connecting the cars in a railway train. [U. S.] -- Dummy car (Railroad), a car containing its own steam power or locomotive. -- Freight car (Railrood), a car for the transportation of merchandise or other goo…

um oil. The carburetor for a gasoline engine is usually either a surface carburetor, or a float, float-feed, or spray, carburetor. In the former air is charged by being passed over the surface of gasoline. In the latter a fine spray of gasoline is drawn from an atomizing nozzle by a current of air induced by the suctio…

To cause (a vessel) to lean over so that she floats on one side, leaving the other side out of water and accessible for repairs below the water line; to case to be off the keel.

A kind of raft or float, consisting of two or more logs or pieces of wood lashed together, and moved by paddles or sail; -- used as a surf boat and for other purposes on the coasts of the East and West Indies and South America. Modified forms are much used in the lumber regions of North America, and at life-saving stat…

on another; a winding motion. O'er the calm sea, in convolution swift, The feathered eddy floats. Thomson.

A protoplasmic animal cell; esp., such as float free, like blood, lymph, and pus corpuscles; or such as are imbedded in an intercellular matrix, like connective tissue and cartilage corpuscles. See Blood. Virchow showed that the corpuscles of bone are homologous with those of connective tissue. Quain's Anat. Red blood…

Having a wavy, floating light; opalescent; chatoyant.

having a vertical axis, and an inner and outer tapering shell, between which are vanes or floats attached usually to both shells, but sometimes only to one.

fferent shades of color; spotted; variegated; as, a dapple horse. Some dapple mists still floated along the peaks. Sir W. Scott.

A plasterer's float, having two handles; -- used in smoothing ceilings, etc.

The float of a paddle wheel.

The quantity of anything, as water, displaced by a floating body, as by a ship, the weight of the displaced liquid being equal to that of the displacing body.

A float to a fishing line. [Local, U. S.]

The place in court where a criminal or accused person stands. Balance dock, a kind of floating dock which is kept level by pumping water out of, or letting it into, the compartments of side chambers. -- Dry dock, a dock from which the water may be shut or pumped out, especially, one in the form of a chamber having wal…

o of a kind, or two in a set together; coupled. [Let] The swan, on still St. Mary's lake, Float double, swan and shadow. Wordsworth.

Down the stream; as, floating downstream.

Depth of water necessary to float a ship. See Draught.

screw when the ship outruns the screw; or between the propulsive effects of the different floats of a paddle wheel. See Citation under Drag, v. i., 3. Drag sail (Naut.), a sail or canvas rigged on a stout frame, to be dragged by a vessel through the water in order to keep her head to the wind or to prevent drifting; --…

The depth of water necessary to float a ship, or the depth a ship sinks in water, especially when laden; as, a ship of twelve feet draught.