buoy Meaning, Definition & Usage
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noun bright-colored; a float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater hazards
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verb float on the surface of water
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verb keep afloat
buoy up.
- The life vest buoyed him up
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verb mark with a buoy
WordNet
Buoy noun
Etymology
D.Definitions
(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.
Buoy transitive verb
Wordforms
Definitions
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To keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat; -- with up. -
To support or sustain; to preserve from sinking into ruin or despondency. Those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title. Burke.
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To fix buoys to; to mark by a buoy or by buoys; as, to buoy an anchor; tobuoy orbuoy off a channel.Not one rock near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by this floating weed. Darwin.
Buoy intransitive verb
Definitions
To float; to rise like a buoy. "Rising merit will buoy up at last." Pope.