What does buoy mean?

Definitions for buoy
ˈbu i, bɔɪbuoy

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word buoy.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. buoyverb

    bright-colored; a float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater hazards

  2. buoyverb

    float on the surface of water

  3. buoy, buoy upverb

    keep afloat

    "The life vest buoyed him up"

  4. buoyverb

    mark with a buoy

Wiktionary

  1. buoynoun

    A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, or indicate a navigational channel.

  2. buoynoun

    A life-buoy.

  3. buoyverb

    To keep afloat or aloft.

  4. buoyverb

    To support or maintain at a high level.

  5. buoyverb

    To mark with a buoy.

  6. Etymology: From buoy 'a float', from boeye 'a float, signal; line, tether' (cf. boei 'buoy'), from boie, buie 'line, fetter, chain', from boia 'fetters', originally, 'leather collar for the neck', from Ancient Greek 'strap of ox-leather', from 'ox'. More at cow.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. BUOYnoun

    A piece of cork or wood floating on the water, tied to a weight at the bottom.

    Etymology: bouë, or boye, Fr. boya, Span.

    The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
    Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark
    Diminish’d to her cock; her cock a buoy,
    Almost too small for sight. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

    Like buoys, that never sink into the flood,
    On learning’s surface we but lie and nod. Alexander Pope, Dunciad.

  2. To Buoyverb

    To keep afloat; to bear up by specifick lightness.

    Etymology: from the noun.

    All art is used to sink episcopacy, and launch presbytery in England; which was lately buoyed up in Scotland, by the like artifice of a covenant. Charles I .

    The water which rises out of the abyss, for the supply of springs and rivers, would not have stopped at the surface of the earth, but marched directly up into the atmosphere, wherever there was heat enough in the air to continue its ascent, and buoy it up. John Woodward, Nat. Hist.

  3. To Buoyverb

    To float.

    Rising merit will buoy up at last. Alexander Pope, Essay on Crit.

Wikipedia

  1. Buoy

    A buoy () is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents.

ChatGPT

  1. buoy

    A buoy is a floating device that can have different purposes such as to mark safe or unsafe areas, to indicate the presence of marine life, to provide weather data, or to assist in navigation. They are anchored at specific locations in the sea, lakes or rivers. Buoys can also be used in swimming pools for marking lanes.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Buoynoun

    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

  2. Buoyverb

    to keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat; -- with up

  3. Buoyverb

    to support or sustain; to preserve from sinking into ruin or despondency

  4. Buoyverb

    to fix buoys to; to mark by a buoy or by buoys; as, to buoy an anchor; to buoy or buoy off a channel

  5. Buoyverb

    to float; to rise like a buoy

Wikidata

  1. Buoy

    A buoy is a floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift with the sea wave. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly pronounced in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation. The pronunciation, while chiefly American, more closely resembles the modern French bouée.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Buoy

    boi, n. a floating cask or light piece of wood fastened by a rope or chain to indicate shoals, the position of a ship's anchor, &c.—v.t. to fix buoys or marks: to keep afloat, bear up, or sustain: to raise the spirits.—ns. Buoy′age, a series of buoys or floating beacons to mark the course for vessels: the providing of buoys; Buoy′ancy, capacity for floating lightly on water or in the air: specific lightness: (fig.) lightness of spirit, cheerfulness.—adj. Buoy′ant, light: cheerful.—n. Buoy′antness. [Dut. boei, buoy, fetter, through Romance forms (Norman boie), from Low L. boia, a collar of leather.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. buoy

    A sort of close cask, or block of wood, fastened by a rope to the anchor, to show its situation after being cast, that the ship may not come so near it as to entangle her cable about its stock or flukes.--To buoy a cable is to make fast a spar, cask, or the like, to the bight of the cable, in order to prevent its galling or rubbing on the bottom. When a buoy floats on the water it is said to watch. When a vessel slips her cable she attaches a buoy to it in order afterwards to recover it. Thus the blockading squadrons off Brest and in Basque Roads frequently slipped, by signal, and each in beautiful order returned and picked up their cables.--To stream the buoy is to let it fall from the ship's side into the water, which is always done before the anchor is let go, that it may not be fouled by the buoy-rope as it sinks to the bottom.--Buoys of various kinds are also placed upon rocks or sand-banks to direct mariners where to avoid danger.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. BUOY

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Buoy is ranked #49268 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Buoy surname appeared 427 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Buoy.

    74.2% or 317 total occurrences were White.
    8.2% or 35 total occurrences were Black.
    7.2% or 31 total occurrences were Asian.
    4.4% or 19 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    3.5% or 15 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
    2.3% or 10 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of buoy in Chaldean Numerology is: 7

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of buoy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of buoy in a Sentence

  1. William Cobbett:

    The very hirelings of the press, whose trade it is to buoy up the spirits of the people. have uttered falsehoods so long, they have played off so many tricks, that their budget seems, at last, to be quite empty.

  2. Le Cun:

    I am 100% positive that there were no signs on the buoy, i know that because my boat was tied to that buoy.

  3. Barry Svrluga:

    He was in the Navy and he was in a sub-chaser ship, he describes in these journals these night-after-night runs to the coast of France to set buoy markers.

  4. Unknown:

    If privatization fails to buoy up the economy, then let's be put in record now only who would or should be penalized

  5. Jennifer Lehr:

    The message a child gets is that not only is another person's emotional state their responsibility but that they must also sacrifice their own bodies to buoy another's ego or satisfy their desire for love or affection, certainly no parent would wish for their teenager or adult child to feel pressure to reciprocate unwanted sexual advances, yet many teach their children at a young age that it's their job to use their bodies to make others happy.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

buoy#10000#26653#100000

Translations for buoy

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"buoy." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Dec. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/buoy>.

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