Library / English Dictionary

BUOY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("buoy" is a kind of...):

point of reference; reference; reference point (an indicator that orients you generally)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buoy"):

acoustic buoy (a buoy that can be heard (at night))

can; can buoy (a buoy with a round bottom and conical top)

conical buoy; nun; nun buoy (a buoy resembling a cone)

spar buoy (a buoy resembling a vertical log)

Derivation:

buoy (mark with a buoy)

buoy (float on the surface of water)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Mark with a buoy

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "buoy" is one way to...):

mark (designate as if by a mark)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Keep afloat

Example:

The life vest buoyed him up

Synonyms:

buoy; buoy up

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "buoy" is one way to...):

hold; hold up; support; sustain (be the physical support of; carry the weight of)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

buoyant (tending to float on a liquid or rise in air or gas)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Float on the surface of water

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "buoy" is one way to...):

float; swim (be afloat either on or below a liquid surface and not sink to the bottom)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

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

buoyant (tending to float on a liquid or rise in air or gas)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I had indeed made my proposal from the idea that he wished and would ask me to be his wife: an expectation, not the less certain because unexpressed, had buoyed me up, that he would claim me at once as his own.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Geoscientists at the University of South Florida have successfully developed and tested a new high-tech shallow water buoy that can detect the small movements and changes in the Earth's seafloor that may be precursors to deadly natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.

(Geoscientists develop technology to improve forecasting of earthquakes, tsunamis, National Science Foundation)

The buoy's orientation is measured using a digital compass that provides heading, pitch, and roll information –- helping to capture the crucial side-to-side motion of the Earth that can be diagnostic of major tsunami-producing earthquakes.

(Geoscientists develop technology to improve forecasting of earthquakes, tsunamis, National Science Foundation)

The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)