'Floating anchor' definitions:

Definition of 'Floating anchor'

From: GCIDE
  • Floating \Float"ing\, a.
  • 1. Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man and some other animals. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as, floating capital; a floating debt. [1913 Webster]
  • Trade was at an end. Floating capital had been withdrawn in great masses from the island. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
  • Floating anchor (Naut.), a drag or sea anchor; drag sail.
  • Floating battery (Mil.), a battery erected on rafts or the hulls of ships, chiefly for the defense of a coast or the bombardment of a place.
  • Floating bridge. (a) A bridge consisting of rafts or timber, with a floor of plank, supported wholly by the water; a bateau bridge. See Bateau. (b) (Mil.) A kind of double bridge, the upper one projecting beyond the lower one, and capable of being moved forward by pulleys; -- used for carrying troops over narrow moats in attacking the outworks of a fort. (c) A kind of ferryboat which is guided and impelled by means of chains which are anchored on each side of a stream, and pass over wheels on the vessel, the wheels being driven by stream power. (d) The landing platform of a ferry dock.
  • Floating cartilage (Med.), a cartilage which moves freely in the cavity of a joint, and often interferes with the functions of the latter.
  • Floating dam. (a) An anchored dam. (b) A caisson used as a gate for a dry dock.
  • Floating derrick, a derrick on a float for river and harbor use, in raising vessels, moving stone for harbor improvements, etc.
  • Floating dock. (Naut.) See under Dock.
  • Floating harbor, a breakwater of cages or booms, anchored and fastened together, and used as a protection to ships riding at anchor to leeward. --Knight.
  • Floating heart (Bot.), a small aquatic plant ({Limnanthemum lacunosum}) whose heart-shaped leaves float on the water of American ponds.
  • Floating island, a dish for dessert, consisting of custard with floating masses of whipped cream or white of eggs.
  • Floating kidney. (Med.) See Wandering kidney, under Wandering.
  • Floating light, a light shown at the masthead of a vessel moored over sunken rocks, shoals, etc., to warn mariners of danger; a light-ship; also, a light erected on a buoy or floating stage.
  • Floating liver. (Med.) See Wandering liver, under Wandering.
  • Floating pier, a landing stage or pier which rises and falls with the tide.
  • Floating ribs (Anat.), the lower or posterior ribs which are not connected with the others in front; in man they are the last two pairs.
  • Floating screed (Plastering), a strip of plastering first laid on, to serve as a guide for the thickness of the coat.
  • Floating threads (Weaving), threads which span several other threads without being interwoven with them, in a woven fabric. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'floating anchor'

From: GCIDE
  • Drag \Drag\, n. [See Drag, v. t., and cf. Dray a cart, and 1st Dredge.]
  • 1. The act of dragging; anything which is dragged. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. A net, or an apparatus, to be drawn along the bottom under water, as in fishing, searching for drowned persons, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. A kind of sledge for conveying heavy bodies; also, a kind of low car or handcart; as, a stone drag. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. A heavy coach with seats on top; also, a heavy carriage. [Collog.] --Thackeray. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. A heavy harrow, for breaking up ground. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. (a) Anything towed in the water to retard a ship's progress, or to keep her head up to the wind; esp., a canvas bag with a hooped mouth, so used. See {Drag sail} (below). (b) Also, a skid or shoe, for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel. (c) Hence, anything that retards; a clog; an obstacle to progress or enjoyment. [1913 Webster]
  • My lectures were only a pleasure to me, and no drag. --J. D. Forbes. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. Motion affected with slowness and difficulty, as if clogged. "Had a drag in his walk." -- Hazlitt. [1913 Webster]
  • 8. (Founding) The bottom part of a flask or mold, the upper part being the cope. [1913 Webster]
  • 9. (Masonry) A steel instrument for completing the dressing of soft stone. [1913 Webster]
  • 10. (Marine Engin.) The difference between the speed of a screw steamer under sail and that of the 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 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; -- called also drift sail, drag sheet, drag anchor, sea anchor, floating anchor, etc.
  • Drag twist (Mining), a spiral hook at the end of a rod for cleaning drilled holes. [1913 Webster]