Center of flotation. (Shipbuilding) (a) The center of any given plane of flotation. (b) More commonly, the middle of the length of the load water line. Rankine.Plane, or Line, of flotation, the plane or line in which the horizontal surface of a fluid cuts a body floating in it. See Bearing, n., 9 (c). Surface of flotation(Shipbuilding), the imaginary surface which all the planes of flotation touch when a vessel rolls or pitches; the envelope of all such planes.

Flote
(Flote) v. t. To fleet; to skim. [Obs.] Tusser.

Flote
(Flote), n. [Cf. F. flot, L. fluctus; also cf. Float, n.] A wave. [Obs.] "The Mediterranean flote." Shak.

Flotery
(Flot"er*y) a. Wavy; flowing. [Obs.]

With flotery beard.
Chaucer.

Flotilla
(Flo*til"la) n. [Sp. flotilla, dim. of flota fleet; akin to F. flotte, It. flotta, and F. flot wave, fr. L. fluctus, but prob. influenced by words akin to E. float. See Fluctuate, and cf. Float, n.] A little fleet, or a fleet of small vessels.

Flotsam
(Flot"sam Flot"son) , n. [F. flotter to float. See FFlotilla, and cf. Jetsam.] (Law) Goods lost by shipwreck, and floating on the sea; — in distinction from jetsam or jetson. Blackstone.

Flotten
(Flot"ten) p. p. of Flote, v. t. Skimmed. [Obs.]

Flounce
(Flounce) v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flounced (flounst); p. pr. & vb. n. Flouncing ] [Cf. OSw. flunsa to immerge.] To throw the limbs and body one way and the other; to spring, turn, or twist with sudden effort or violence; to struggle, as a horse in mire; to flounder; to throw one's self with a jerk or spasm, often as in displeasure.

To flutter and flounce will do nothing but batter and bruise us.
Barrow.

With his broad fins and forky tail he laves
The rising sirge, and flounces in the waves.
Addison.

Flounce
(Flounce) n. The act of floucing; a sudden, jerking motion of the body.

Flounce
(Flounce), n. [Cf. G. flaus, flausch, a tuft of wool or hair; akin to vliess, E. fleece; or perh. corrupted fr. rounce.] An ornamental appendage to the skirt of a woman's dress, consisting of a strip gathered and sewed on by its upper edge around the skirt, and left hanging.

Flounce
(Flounce), v. t. To deck with a flounce or flounces; as, to flounce a petticoat or a frock.

Flounder
(Floun"der) n. [Cf. Sw. flundra; akin to Dan. flynder, Icel. flyra, G. flunder, and perh. to E. flounder, v.i.]

1. (Zoöl.) A flatfish of the family Pleuronectidæ, of many species.

The common English flounder is Pleuronectes flesus. There are several common American species used as food; as the smooth flounder (P. glabra); the rough or winter flounder (P. Americanus); the summer flounder, or plaice (Paralichthys dentatus), Atlantic coast; and the starry flounder

2. (Bootmaking) A tool used in crimping boot fronts.

Flounder
(Floun"der), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Floundered ; p. pr. & vb. n. Floundering.] [Cf. D. flodderen to flap, splash through mire, E. flounce, v.i., and flounder the fish.] To fling the limbs and body, as in

2. The science of floating bodies.


  By PanEris using Melati.

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