Buoy | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Buoy, n.

noun

(bwŏy, or bwōy), n. [D. boei, boei, buoy, fetter; L. Ger. boie, boje; M. H. Ger. boije; O. Fr. boye, N. Fr. bouée, a buoy; Sp. boya; O. Fr. buie, a fetter, Pr. boia, O. It. boja, Lat. boja. “Boje genus vinculorum tam ferrea quam lignea.” Festus.] A float; especially a floating mark to point out the position of objects beneath the water, as anchors, shoals, rocks, &c.

☞ “Buoys are of various kinds; as, can-buoys, in the form of a cone; nut or nun-buoys, which are large in the middle, and tapering nearly to a point at each end; cable-buoys, empty casks employed to buoy up the cable in rocky anchorage; life-buoy, a buoy intended to support persons who have fallen into the water, until a boat can be dispatched to save them.

To stream the buoy, to let it fall by the ship’s side into the water, before letting go the anchor. Totten.

☞ “On board of ship, where the word buoy is always occurring, it is called a boy, though the slow, correct pronunciation is bwōy.” Smart.

An illustration shows a bell-buoy and a nut-buoy floating in the water. — Bell-buoy. Nut-buoy.

Buoy, v. t.

verbtransitive

(bwŏy, or bwōy), v. t. [imp. & p. p. BUOYED; p. pr. & vb. n. BUOYING.]

To bear or keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat;—with up.
To support or sustain; to keep from sinking into ruin or despondency.

Those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title. Burke. 3. To fix buoys to; to mark by buoys; as, to buoy an anchor; to buoy or buoy off a channel.

Buoy or Buōy, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. To float; to rise by specific lightness.

Rising merit will buoy up at last. Pope.