▪ I. † flote, n.1 Obs.
Also 5–6 flot, 6 Sc. floit.
[OE. flota wk. masc. = M.Du. vlote, ON. flote: see float n. In sense 2 ad. Sp. flota: see flota.]
1. A fleet or flotilla.
| O.E. Chron. ann. 975 Næs se flota swa rang. c 1275 Lay. 2155 Humber king and his flote..comen on Albanac his lond. 1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 601 He had na ner socouris Then the kingis flote. c 1470 Henry Wallace ix. 98 The lakest schip, that is his flot within. 1577 in Hakluyt Voy. (1599) I. 296 The good ship named the Primerose, shalbe Admirall of this flote. |
2. = flota 1.
| 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 484 The Longha [in Sevil], where the Merchants meet about the affairs of the flote. |
▪ II. † flote, n.2 Obs.
[a. OF. flote fem., company of persons, multitude = Sp. flota, Pg. frota:—pop. L. type *flotta, prob. f. Teut. *flot- weak grade of the root of *fleutan fleet v. in the sense ‘to flow’.
The Sp. and Pg. words also mean ‘fleet of vessels’, and in this meaning are prob. adoptions of the Teut. word appearing as ON. flote, OE. flota wk. masc., f. the same root in the sense ‘to float’. The mod. sense of F. flotte, fleet, is believed to have been adopted from Sp. in the 16th c.; the older sense is still current in certain phrases, but is popularly regarded as a transferred use. It. has fiotta, frotta, flotta in both senses, but their relation to the F. word is doubtful.]
A company, troop; also, a herd (of cattle), a shoal (of fish).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2444 (Cott.), O fee þai had a selly flot. c 1300 Havelok 738 Þere he made a litel cote To him and to hise flote. a 1375 Joseph of Arim. 28 Joseph ferde biforen and þe flote folewede. a 1400–50 Alexander 770 Aithire with a firs flote in þe fild metis. 1513 Douglas æneis xii. v. 191 Italians hurlis on him in a flote. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 343 A great flote of dolphins. 1647 N. Bacon Hist. Disc. Govt. Eng. i. v. 17 The Goths, Vandals..and other flotes of people that about these times..were weary of their own dwellings. |
▪ III. † flote, v.1 Obs.
Also 7 float.
[Of doubtful formation: either f. flot n.1 or back formation from floten, flotten.]
trans. To skim; = fleet v.2 1.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. xlix. (1878) 108 Gehezie his sicknes was whitish and drie, Such cheeses, good Cisley, ye floted too nie. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. 270 Floating of a Cheese, is the separating the Whey from the Curd. |
▪ IV. † flote, v.2 Sc. Obs.
Also 5 floyt(e, flot.
[Conjectured to be a variant of flute v.]
trans. ? To trim with ‘fluting’. Hence ˈfloting vbl. n. (used concr. and attrib.).
| 1473 in Ld. Treas. Acc. Scotl. I. 16 To the sammyn ij. dowblatis ij½ elne of braid clath to flote thaim. 1474 Ibid. 23 To by stufe and floting for the Kingis doublat. 1491 Ibid. 188 Quhyt fustiane to floyt a dowblat of dwn sattin. |
▪ V. flote, flote-grass
obs. ff. float, float-grass.