Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Float.

2. (a.) Buoyed upon or in a fluid; a, the floating timbers of a wreck; floating motes in the air.

3. (a.) Free or lose from the usual attachment; as, the floating ribs in man and some other animals.

4. (a.) Not funded; not fixed, invested, or determined; as, floating capital; a floating debt.

5. (n.) Floating threads. See Floating threads, above.

6. (n.) The second coat of three-coat plastering.