Literary notes about float (AI summary)
The term “float” appears in literature with a diverse range of uses that extend beyond its literal meaning. It often describes the gentle or aimless movement of objects on water, evoking images of driftwood, boats, or even human bodies carried by the tide, as seen when dead crew members drift along shorelines [1] or when a tub meanders on the sea [2]. At the same time, “float” can capture the ethereal, intangible quality of emotions or thoughts, where ideas seem to drift lightly in the mind [3] or voices seem to float closer together [4]. The word is also employed in technical contexts, referring to the physical properties of buoyancy in vessels or experimental apparatus [5, 6], and it appears even in metaphorical or symbolic expressions to illustrate escape, transcendence, or the delicate balance between stability and loss [7, 8].
- The wounded bonde o'er the side Falls shrieking in the blood-stained tide— The deck is cleared with wild uproar— The dead crew float about the shore.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson - [Pg 272] Long did the tub float about on the sea.
— from Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore - My thoughts float idly over the story of
— from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems - His whisper blended in the music, and they seemed to float nearer together.
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 44)—the float chamber and the jet chamber .
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - "But there is another way to make it float, which is to fill it with hot air.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - All thy unnamable imminglings float beneath me here; I am buoyed by breaths of once living things, exhaled as air, but water now.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville - And like a wandering spirit I float unweariedly o'er flood and field.
— from English Literature by William J. Long
