/flɔː/, /flɔɹ/, [flo̞ɹ]
OriginInherited 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, fluir (“floor”), Saterland Frisian Floor (“floor”), West Frisian flier (“floor”), Dutch vloer (“floor”), German Flur (“field, floor, entrance hall”), German Low German Floor (“entry hall”), Luxembourgish Flouer (“countryside, farmland”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish flor (“floor of a cow stall”), Irish urlár (“floor”), Scottish Gaelic làr (“floor, ground, earth”), Welsh llawr (“floor, ground”), Latin plānus (“level, flat”).
- countableThe interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room.
“The room has a wooden floor.”
“A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.”
- The bottom surface of a natural structure, entity, or space (e.g. cave, forest, ocean, desert, etc.); the ground (surface of the Earth).
“The leaves covering the forest floor provide many hiding-places for small animals.”
“Many sunken ships rest on the ocean floor.”
“The floor of a cave served the refugees as a home.”
- UK, colloquial, dialectalThe ground.
“After stepping off the bus, my wallet fell on the floor.”
- A structure formed of beams, girders, etc, with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into storeys/stories.
- The supporting surface or platform of a structure such as a bridge.
“Wooden planks of the old bridge's floor were nearly rotten.”
- countableA storey/story of a building.
“For years we lived on the third floor.”
“When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he fel”
- In a parliament, the part of the house assigned to the members, as opposed to the viewing gallery.
- broadlyThe right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event.
“Will the senator from Arizona yield the floor?”
“The mayor often gives a lobbyist the floor.”
- That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal.
- A horizontal, flat ore body; the rock underlying a stratified or nearly horizontal deposit.
- The bottom of a pit, pothole or mine.
- The largest integer less than or equal to a given number.
- An event performed on a floor-like carpeted surface; floor exercise
- A floor-like carpeted surface for performing gymnastic movements.
- A lower limit or minimum on a price or rate, a price floor. Opposite of a cap or ceiling.
- A dance floor.
“She's a maniac, maniac on the floor / And she's dancing like she never danced before”
“Open the door, get on the floor / Everybody walk the dinosaur”
“Meet me on the floor tonight
Show me how to move like the water”
- The trading floor of a stock exchange, pit; the area in which business is conducted at a convention or exhibition.
- The area of a casino where gambling occurs.
“At each table stood a young, slim, poker-faced croupier serving the punters who anxiously watched the turning of the cards. The next two floors were similar though not quite as spectacular and the sta”
- The area of an establishment where food and drink are served to customers.
“The conference started as an impromptu session in the coffee shop this morning when waitresses walked off the floor rather than serve four Negro men and women delegates.”
- transitiveTo cover or furnish with a floor.
“floor a house with pine boards”
“The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century,[”
- To strike down or lay level with the floor; to knock down.
“Sam floored him perpetually, and beat his face to a jelly, without getting a scratch.”
- dated, informalTo hang (a picture on exhibition) near the base of a wall, where it cannot easily be seen.
- slang, transitiveTo push (a pedal) down to the floor, especially to accelerate.
“our driver floored the pedal”
“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.”
- informal, transitiveTo silence by a conclusive answer or retort.
“floor an opponent”
“Floored or crushed by him.”
- informal, transitiveTo amaze or greatly surprise.
“We were floored by his confession.”
“Some of the attendees were “absolutely floored,” said an official familiar with the proceedings. That someone in the U.S. government could “make an argument that is so nakedly against transparency, in”
- colloquial, transitiveTo finish or make an end of.
“floor a college examination”
“I've floored my little-go work”
- To set a lower bound.
Formsfloors(plural) · floors(present, singular, third-person) · flooring(participle, present) · floored(participle, past) · floored(past)