The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
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withdrawn in great masses from the island.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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Liver \Liv"er\, n. [AS. lifer; akin to D. liver, G. leber, OHG.
lebara, Icel. lifr, Sw. lefver, and perh. to Gr. ? fat, E.
live, v.] (Anat.)
A very large glandular and vascular organ in the visceral
cavity of all vertebrates.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Most of the venous blood from the alimentary canal
passes through it on its way back to the heart; and it
secretes the bile, produces glycogen, and in other ways
changes the blood which passes through it. In man it is
situated immediately beneath the diaphragm and mainly
on the right side. See Bile, Digestive, and
Glycogen. The liver of invertebrate animals is
usually made up of c[ae]cal tubes, and differs
materially, in form and function, from that of
vertebrates.
[1913 Webster]
Floating liver. See Wandering liver, under Wandering.
Liver of antimony, Liver of sulphur. (Old Chem.) See
Hepar.
Liver brown, Liver color, the color of liver, a dark,
reddish brown.
Liver shark (Zool.), a very large shark (Cetorhinus
maximus), inhabiting the northern coasts both of Europe
and North America. It sometimes becomes forty feet in
length, being one of the largest sharks known; but it has
small simple teeth, and is not dangerous. It is captured
for the sake of its liver, which often yields several
barrels of oil. It has gill rakers, resembling whalebone,
by means of which it separates small animals from the sea
water. Called also basking shark, bone shark,
hoemother, homer, and sailfish; it is sometimes
referred to as whale shark, but that name is more
commonly used for the Rhincodon typus, which grows even
larger.
Liver spots, yellowish brown patches on the skin, or spots
of chloasma.
[1913 Webster]