free-floating
adjective
free-float·ing
ˈfrē-ˈflō-tiŋ 
1
a
: floating freely
free-floating vegetation
b
: lacking specific attachment, direction, or purpose
free-floating ideas
2
: felt as an emotion without apparent cause
free-floating anxiety
Examples of free-floating in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
But after that, the balloon will be at the mercy of the wind, free-floating for up to 35 minutes and ideally passing through the path of totality.
—
Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Apr. 2024
These places have long been associated with boredom, with a vague, free-floating malaise.
—Julie Beck, The Atlantic, 2 Apr. 2024
Researchers and clinicians working with combat veterans have shown how avoiding thinking or talking about an overwhelming and painful event can lead to free-floating sadness and anger, all of which can become attached to present circumstances.
—George Makari, The Atlantic, 21 Mar. 2024
In hard tap water samples that contained 300 milligrams of CaCO3 per liter of water, the researchers were able to use the boil-and-filter technique to remove up to 80% of free-floating NMPs, including polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene.1
Soft tap water samples were trickier.
—Alyssa Hui, Verywell Health, 14 Mar. 2024
The mix turned out to be a soup of free-floating lymphoma cells that were shed by the tumor.
—Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 15 Feb. 2024
The free-floating agony of Lorna’s visions coalesce around cold, hard facts, and the murder mysteries take a backseat to the larger conspiracy that links them — so much that by the time the killers are revealed in the finale, the answers register almost as afterthoughts.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Jan. 2024
But either way, these enigmatic worlds don’t fit neatly into existing theories describing how either stars or free-floating planets form.
—Quanta Magazine, 21 Dec. 2023
While they would generally be expected to have some similar properties, a free-floating brown dwarf is easier to study than a giant exoplanet.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 13 Dec. 2023
Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Apr. 2024
These places have long been associated with boredom, with a vague, free-floating malaise.
—Julie Beck, The Atlantic, 2 Apr. 2024
Researchers and clinicians working with combat veterans have shown how avoiding thinking or talking about an overwhelming and painful event can lead to free-floating sadness and anger, all of which can become attached to present circumstances.
—George Makari, The Atlantic, 21 Mar. 2024
In hard tap water samples that contained 300 milligrams of CaCO3 per liter of water, the researchers were able to use the boil-and-filter technique to remove up to 80% of free-floating NMPs, including polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene.1
Soft tap water samples were trickier.
—Alyssa Hui, Verywell Health, 14 Mar. 2024
The mix turned out to be a soup of free-floating lymphoma cells that were shed by the tumor.
—Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 15 Feb. 2024
The free-floating agony of Lorna’s visions coalesce around cold, hard facts, and the murder mysteries take a backseat to the larger conspiracy that links them — so much that by the time the killers are revealed in the finale, the answers register almost as afterthoughts.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Jan. 2024
But either way, these enigmatic worlds don’t fit neatly into existing theories describing how either stars or free-floating planets form.
—Quanta Magazine, 21 Dec. 2023
While they would generally be expected to have some similar properties, a free-floating brown dwarf is easier to study than a giant exoplanet.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 13 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'free-floating.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Free-floating.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/free-floating. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
free-floating
adjective
free-float·ing
ˈfrē-ˈflōt-iŋ
: felt as an emotion without apparent cause
free-floating anxiety
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