float
/fləʊt/ verbDefinition
› [I or T] STOCK MARKET to offer new shares or bonds for sale on a financial market: The authority has recently floated a $170 million bond to pay for some of the installation costs.
› [I or T] STOCK MARKET to sell shares on a stock market for the first time in order to finance a new company: There are several new businesses looking to float.float (sth) on the stock market/stock exchange etc. The group is planning to float on the New York Stock Exchange later this year.float at $3/200p/ etc. (a share) The stock was floated at 233p a share last July and closed up 3.75p last night at 286.25p. Last January the chief executive said he would only float the company if there was a "dramatic" revival in the market.
› [I or T] ECONOMICS if a country floats its currency, or if the currency floats, the government no longer controls its value in relation to the value of other currencies: Central Bank is planning to stop letting the peso float freely.
› [T] to make a suggestion, especially one for doing something that is different from what has been done in the past: float an idea/proposal/suggestion The partnership idea was floated at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last year.
› [I] FINANCE if a price or amount floats, it changes: In the space of a few weeks, stock valuation floated up by 15%.
(Definition of float verb from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary
© Cambridge University Press)
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