buoy

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Buoyed p. pr. & vb. n. Buoying. ] 1. To keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat; -- with up. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To support or sustain; to preserve from sinking into ruin or despondency. [ 1913 Webster ]

Those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To fix buoys to; to mark by a buoy or by buoys; as, to buoy an anchor; to buoy or buoy off a channel. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not one rock near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by this floating weed. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To float; to rise like a buoy. “Rising merit will buoy up at last.” Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Buoys, taken collectively; a series of buoys, as for the guidance of vessels into or out of port; the providing of buoys. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Buoyancy. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Buoyancies 1. The property of floating on the surface of a liquid, or in a fluid, as in the atmosphere; specific lightness, which is inversely as the weight compared with that of an equal volume of water. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Physics) The upward pressure exerted upon a floating body by a fluid, which is equal to the weight of the body; hence, also, the weight of a floating body, as measured by the volume of fluid displaced. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such are buoyancies or displacements of the different classes of her majesty's ships. Eng. Cyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Cheerfulness; vivacity; liveliness; sprightliness; -- the opposite of heaviness; as, buoyancy of spirits. [ 1913 Webster ]