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buoy.

A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɔɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈboj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈboɪ/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈbɔɪ/Canada, General-American

  1. A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes

  2. A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes A lifebuoy; a life preserver.

  3. A sign where the non-dominant hand is held in a stationary configuration as a landmark for meaning associations with the dominant hand.

    list buoy
Where this word comes from

From Middle English boy, boye, from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), from Old French boue (“piece of wood or cork that floats above an anchor to indicate where it is anchored”) (modern French bouée), ultimately from Frankish *baukn (“beacon”), from Proto-Germanic *baukną. Doublet of beacon. Alternatively, and perhaps less likely (due to the unexplained shift in meaning), from Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”), 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 *gʷṓws (“cow”). Noun sense 2 was coined by American linguist Scott K. Lindell in 2003.

verb/ˈbɔɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈboj/British, Southern, Standard/ˈboɪ/Australia, New-Zealand/ˈbɔɪ/Canada, General-American

  1. To keep afloat or aloft; used with up.

    transitive

  2. To support or maintain at a high level.

    transitive

  3. To mark with a buoy.

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

  4. To maintain or enhance enthusiasm or confidence; to lift the spirits of.

    Buoyed by the huge success, they announced two other projects.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English boy, boye, from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), from Old French boue (“piece of wood or cork that floats above an anchor to indicate where it is anchored”) (modern French bouée), ultimately from Frankish *baukn (“beacon”), from Proto-Germanic *baukną. Doublet of beacon. Alternatively, and perhaps less likely (due to the unexplained shift in meaning), from Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”), 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 *gʷṓws (“cow”). Noun sense 2 was coined by American linguist Scott K. Lindell in 2003.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.