buoy

Borrowed from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), perhaps a special use of Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”) (compare modern bouée), probably from Frankish *baukan, or alternatively from Latin boia (“a (leather) collar, band, fetter”), from Ancient Greek βόεος (bóeos), βόειος (bóeios, “of ox-hide”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷow- (“cow”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔɪ/

  Rhymes: -ɔɪ

  Homophone: boy

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbuːiː/, /ˈbui/, /ˈbɔɪ/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈbwɔɪ/

buoy (plural buoys)

1. (nautical) A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, or indicate a navigational channel.
2. A life-buoy; a life preserver.

• lifebuoy
• light buoy
• mooring buoy
• buoyant
• buoyancy

buoy (third-person singular simple present buoys, present participle buoying, simple past and past participle buoyed)

1. (transitive) To keep afloat or aloft; used with up.
2. (transitive) To support or maintain at a high level.
3. (transitive) To mark with a buoy.

   to buoy an anchor; to buoy or buoy off a channel

   • 1839, Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, London: Henry Colburn, Chapter 13, p. 303,

     Not one rock near the surface was discovered which was not buoyed by this floating weed.

4. To maintain or enhance enthusiasm or confidence
   • 2013, Daniel Taylor, Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban (in The Guardian, 6 September 2013)

     It ended up being a bittersweet night for England, full of goals to send the crowd home happy, buoyed by the news that Montenegro and Poland had drawn elsewhere in Group H but also with a measure of regret about what happened to Danny Welbeck and what it means for Roy Hodgson's team going into a much more difficult assignment against Ukraine.

   Buoyed by the huge success, they announced two other projects.

• buoy up

• buoy up
• can buoy
• conical buoy
• bell buoy
• ring buoy
• life buoy
• breeches buoy

• buyo