floater
    n 1: spots before the eyes caused by opaque cell fragments in
         the vitreous humor and lens; "floaters seem to drift
         through the field of vision" [syn: musca volitans,
         muscae volitantes, floater, spots]
    2: a debt instrument with a variable interest rate tied to some
       other interest rate (e.g. the rate paid by T-bills)
    3: a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means
       of support [syn: vagrant, drifter, floater, vagabond]
    4: an employee who is reassigned from job to job as needed
    5: a voter who votes illegally at different polling places in
       the same election
    6: a swimmer who floats in the water
    7: an object that floats or is capable of floating
    8: an insurance policy covering loss of movable property (e.g.
       jewelry) regardless of its location [syn: floater,
       floating policy]

Floater \Float"er\, n.
   1. One who floats or swims.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A float for indicating the height of a liquid surface.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Politics)
      (a) A voter who shifts from party to party, esp. one whose
          vote is purchasable. [U. S.]
      (b) A person, as a delegate to a convention or a member of
          a legislature, who represents an irregular
          constituency, as one formed by a union of the voters
          of two counties neither of which has a number
          sufficient to be allowed a (or an extra)
          representative of its own. [U. S.]
      (c) A person who votes illegally in various polling places
          or election districts, either under false registration
          made by himself or under the name of some properly
          registered person who has not already voted. [U. S.]
          [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

floater

    A report in a bug tracking system that
   "floats" at the top of the queue but never gets assigned to a
   developer, maybe because there is a workaround.

   [<Dodgy Coder>].

   (2012-04-25)