float

«float» in Mova's school dictionary: To stay on top of water or another liquid without sinking — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (float, floats, floated, floating); noun (a float, floats)

meaning for a pupil

1) To stay on top of water or another liquid without sinking. tree →

2) To move slowly through air or water: a balloon floats away. tree →

3) A noun: something that floats, like a float used to learn swimming or on a fishing line. tree →

4) A noun: a decorated truck in a parade. tree →

5) A noun: a small amount of money in a cash box for change. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science: an object floats if it is less dense than the water (lighter for its size); wood, ice and air-filled balls float; stones and coins sink; salty water helps things float better. Sink-or-float experiments. In swimming safety: if you fall into water, float on your back to rest and breathe; use floats when learning. Phrases: float or sink, float on your back, floating island, float away, float in a parade.

examples

• Wood floats but stones sink. tree →
• Ice floats on water. tree →
• Lie on your back and float. tree →
• I use a float in my swimming lesson. tree →
• The balloon floated up into the sky. tree →
• We tested which objects float or sink. tree →
• Leaves floated down the stream. tree →
• The school float in the parade was covered in flowers. tree →
• The canoe floated to the shore. tree →

note

Regular verb: floated. Opposite: sink. Myth: heavy things don't always sink — a huge ship floats because its shape holds lots of air and is light for its size. In science lessons «floats» means stays at the top.

In the corpora

• Dandelion seeds float on tiny parachutes into pavement cracks, where dust and water collect, and a long taproot finds water deep down.
• A floating plastic bag looks like a jellyfish to a leatherback, which is one big reason to keep plastic out of the sea.
• Fish have no eyelids, but many rest by slowing down and floating still; some parrotfish sleep in a bubble of slime.
• Seals can sleep floating upright with their noses up, hold their breath for many minutes and close their nostrils tightly when they dive.
• Sea turtles eat jellyfish, and floating plastic bags look like jellyfish, so turtles sometimes swallow plastic, which can block their stomachs.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «float» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.