float around

float around

1. To float or bob over or on top of a particular surface. Look at all the ducks just floating around the pond! Look, Billy! Look at all the bubbles floating around! I just want to get on an inner tube, float around the lake, and forget all my troubles!

2. To not be in any specific location. I just saw that book yesterday, so it must be floating around here somewhere. I know the folder is floating around my office, I just haven't put my finger on it. We're going to get in serious trouble if the boss hears that there were classified documents just floating around the department!

See also: around, float

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

float around

to float from here to there freely. All sorts of paper and trash were floating around on the surface of the pond. Water hyacinths floated around, making a very tropical scene.

See also: around, float

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

float around

v.

1. To be or move in a nonspecific or unknown location: That pen must be floating around here somewhere. The travelers floated around the countryside, stopping here and there to eat and rest.

2. To move around while suspended on the surface of a fluid without sinking; float in no particular direction: Empty bottles and other debris float around in the cove at low tide.

See also: around, float

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.