What is the meaning of float?

noun

• The time interval between the deposit of a check in a bank and its payment.
• The number of shares outstanding and available for trading by the public.
• A drink with ice cream floating in it.
  • synonyms: ice-cream soda, ice-cream float
• An elaborate display mounted on a platform carried by a truck (or pulled by a truck) in a procession or parade.
• A hand tool with a flat face used for smoothing and finishing the surface of plaster or cement or stucco.
  • synonyms: plasterer's float
• Something that floats on the surface of water.
• An air-filled sac near the spinal column in many fishes that helps maintain buoyancy.
  • synonyms: air bladder, swim bladder

verb

• Be in motion due to some air or water current.
  • usage: "The leaves were blowing in the wind"; "the boat drifted on the lake"; "The sailboat was adrift on the open sea"; "the shipwrecked boat drifted away from the shore"
  • synonyms: drift, be adrift, blow
• Be afloat either on or below a liquid surface and not sink to the bottom.
  • synonyms: swim
• Set afloat.
  • usage: "He floated the logs down the river"; "The boy floated his toy boat on the pond"
• Circulate or discuss tentatively; test the waters with.
  • usage: "The Republicans are floating the idea of a tax reform"
• Move lightly, as if suspended.
  • usage: "The dancer floated across the stage"
• Put into the water.
  • usage: "float a ship"
• Make the surface of level or smooth.
  • usage: "float the plaster"
• Allow (currencies) to fluctuate.
  • usage: "The government floated the ruble for a few months"
• Convert from a fixed point notation to a floating point notation.
  • usage: "float data"