floor

English Online Dictionary. What means floor‎? What does floor mean?

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English flor, flore, from Old English flōr (“floor, pavement, ground, bottom”), from Proto-West Germanic *flōr, from Proto-Germanic *flōraz (“flat surface, floor, plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂ros (“floor”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”).

Cognate with Scots flair, Scots flure, fluir (“floor”), Saterland Frisian Floor (“floor”), West Frisian flier (“floor”), Dutch vloer (“floor”), German Low German Floor (“entry hall”), German Flur (“field, floor, entrance hall”), Swedish flor (“floor of a cow stall”), Irish urlár (“floor”), Scottish Gaelic làr (“floor, ground, earth”), Welsh llawr (“floor, ground”), Latin plānus (“level, flat”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: flô, IPA^(key): /flɔː/
• (General American) enPR: flôr, IPA^(key): /floɹ/, [flo̞ɹ]
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: flōr, IPA^(key): /flo(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /floə/
• (non-rhotic, dough–door merger, African-American Vernacular) IPA^(key): /floʊ/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• Homophones: flaw (non-rhotic); flow, floe (dough–door merger)

Noun

floor (plural floors)

2. (countable) The interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room.
3. (geology, biology, chiefly with a modifier) The bottom surface of a natural structure, entity, or space (e.g. cave, forest, ocean, desert, etc.); the ground (surface of the Earth).

4. (UK, dialectal, colloquial) The ground.

5. (construction, architecture) A structure formed of beams, girders, etc, with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into storeys/stories.
6. The supporting surface or platform of a structure such as a bridge.

8. (architecture, countable) A storey/story of a building.
9. In a parliament, the part of the house assigned to the members, as opposed to the viewing gallery.
10. (by extension) The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event.

11. (nautical) That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal.
12. (mining) A horizontal, flat ore body; the rock underlying a stratified or nearly horizontal deposit.
13. (mining) The bottom of a pit, pothole or mine.
14. (mathematics) The largest integer less than or equal to a given number.

15. (gymnastics) An event performed on a floor-like carpeted surface; floor exercise
16. (gymnastics) A floor-like carpeted surface for performing gymnastic movements.
17. (finance) A lower limit or minimum on a price or rate, a price floor. Opposite of a cap or ceiling.
18. A dance floor.
    • 1983, "Maniac", Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky:

      She's a maniac, maniac on the floor / And she's dancing like she never danced before

    • 1987, "Walk the Dinosaur", Was (Not Was):

      Open the door, get on the floor / Everybody walk the dinosaur

19. The trading floor of a stock exchange, pit; the area in which business is conducted at a convention or exhibition.
20. The area of a casino where gambling occurs.
21. The area of an establishment where food and drink are served to customers.

Synonyms

• (bottom part of a room): see Thesaurus:floor
• (right to speak): possession (UK)

Antonyms

• ceiling

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

floor (third-person singular simple present floors, present participle flooring, simple past and past participle floored)

1. (transitive) To cover or furnish with a floor.
2. To strike down or lay level with the floor; to knock down.
3. (informal, dated) To hang (a picture on exhibition) near the base of a wall, where it cannot easily be seen.

   Antonym: sky

4. (driving, transitive, slang) To push (a pedal) down to the floor, especially to accelerate.
   • 2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.7, at p.161:

     I don't remember much about the flight from Chicago to Denver. We landed a little after eleven, and I ran through the airport, ran to my car. Floored it most of the way home.

5. (informal, transitive) To silence by a conclusive answer or retort.
6. (informal, transitive, usually passive voice) To amaze or greatly surprise.
7. (colloquial, transitive) To finish or make an end of.
8. (mathematics) To set a lower bound.

Translations

References

Further reading

• Floor (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Floor in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• Floro

Hawaiian Creole

Noun

floor

1. (countable) floor (the interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room)

Middle English

Noun

floor

1. Alternative form of flor