Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, or indicate a navigational channel.
- noun A life buoy.
- transitive verb To keep afloat or aloft.
- transitive verb To maintain at a high level; support.
- transitive verb To hearten or inspire; uplift.
- transitive verb To mark with or as if with a buoy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To support by a buoy or as by a buoy; keep afloat in a fluid; bear up or keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air: generally with up.
- Figuratively, to support or sustain in any sense; especially, to sustain mentally; keep from falling into despondency or discouragement: generally with up.
- To fix buoys in as a direction to mariners: as, to
buoy or to buoy off a channel. - To float; rise by reason of lightness.
- noun A float fixed at a certain place to show the position of objects beneath the water, as shoals, rocks, etc., to mark out a channel, and the like
- noun A buoyant object designed to be thrown from a vessel to assist a person who has fallen into the water to keep himself afloat; a life-buoy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Naut.) A float; esp. a floating object moored to the bottom, to mark a channel or to point out the position of something beneath the water, as an anchor, shoal, rock, etc.
- noun a buoy attached to, or marking the position of, an anchor.
- noun a large buoy on which a bell is mounted, to be rung by the motion of the waves.
- noun See under
Breeches . - noun an empty cask employed to buoy up the cable in rocky anchorage.
- noun a hollow buoy made of sheet or boiler iron, usually conical or pear-shaped.
- noun a float intended to support persons who have fallen into the water, until a boat can be dispatched to save them.
- noun a buoy large in the middle, and tapering nearly to a point at each end.
- noun to let the anchor buoy fall by the ship's side into the water, before letting go the anchor.
- noun a buoy fitted with a whistle that is blown by the action of the waves.
- transitive verb To keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat; -- with
up . - transitive verb To support or sustain; to preserve from sinking into ruin or despondency.
- transitive verb To fix buoys to; to mark by a buoy or by buoys.
- intransitive verb To float; to rise like a buoy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A
float moored inwater tomark alocation ,warn ofdanger , orindicate anavigational channel . - noun A
life-buoy . - verb transitive To keep
afloat oraloft . - verb transitive To
support ormaintain at a highlevel . - verb transitive To mark with a buoy.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun bright-colored; a float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater hazards
- verb float on the surface of water
- verb keep afloat
- verb mark with a buoy
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A buoy is tossed over the rail but the captain refuses to hard down the helm and send a boat to rescue.
“Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, . . . .” 2008
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A lot of times, it's a two-loop swim, and the turn buoy is only 300 yards away.
USATODAY.com - Kemper's reality: Swim, bike, run, get to the airport, eat 2004
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The flag of the first buoy is scarlet and the ball is under the flag.
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You can see there is this buoy, which is basically kind of washed ashore.
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The Bluewater Revolution - From the article: The buoy is the antenna, eyes, and brain of a sprawling apparatus suspended beneath the surface like a huge aquatic insect, its legs of thick steel chain tethered to the ocean floor.
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The Bluewater Revolution - From the article: The buoy is the antenna, eyes, and brain of a sprawling apparatus suspended beneath the surface like a huge aquatic insect, its legs of thick steel chain tethered to the ocean floor.
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The Bluewater Revolution - From the article: The buoy is the antenna, eyes, and brain of a sprawling apparatus suspended beneath the surface like a huge aquatic insect, its legs of thick steel chain tethered to the ocean floor.
Archive 2004-04-01 2004
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Yes, that was the sound of the bell hung from within the cage-like framework surrounding the buoy, which is moored on the edge of the shoal skirting the fairway leading into Portsmouth Harbour.
Young Tom Bowling The Boys of the British Navy John B. [Illustrator] Greene
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Inside the buoy was a capsule marked 'Andree's Polar Expedition,' containing a slip of paper, on which was given the following: 'Drifting Buoy No. 7.
The Dominion of the Air; the story of aerial navigation John Mackenzie Bacon 1875
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Not till August 31st was there picked up in the Arctic zone a buoy, which is preserved in the Museum of Stockholm.
The Dominion of the Air; the story of aerial navigation John Mackenzie Bacon 1875
bilby commented on the word buoy
His father would beg, his mother implore,
'Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore,
We really do wish you would shut the door!'
Their hands they wrung, their hair they tore;
But Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore
Was deaf as the buoy out at the Nore.
- William Brighty Rands, 'Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore'.
November 30, 2008