| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| buoy |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  b   , boi |
| NOUN: | 1. A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, or indicate a navigational channel. 2. A life buoy. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: buoyed, buoy·ing, buoys
1. To keep afloat or aloft: a glider buoyed by air currents. 2a. To maintain at a high level; support: “the persistent … takeover speculation, which has buoyed up the shares of banks” (Financial Times). b. To hearten or inspire; uplift: “buoyed up by the team spirit and the pride of the older generation back at home” (Judith Martin). 3. To mark with or as if with a buoy. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English boie, from Old French boue, probably of Germanic origin. See bh -1 in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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