float

float
 v.— «Verts doesn’t consider himself a doctor, anyway. He’s a horse floater,  one who “floats,” or files down, teeth. Some say floaters got their name from their partiality to drifting about the country. Others think they were named for the similarity of their hardware to the flat-faced tools—floats—used for finishing concrete.» —“Horse dentist floats around in a stable job” by Ellen Barlett in Davie, Florida Washington Post Dec. 1, 1982. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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Further reading

By a Long Shot (episode #1572)

Imagine telling someone how to get to your home, but without using the name of your street, or any other street within ten miles. Could you do it? We take street names for granted, but these words are useful for far more, like applying for a job or...

Yak Shaving (episode #1548)

There was a time when William Shakespeare was just another little seven-year-old in school. Classes in his day were demanding — and all in Latin. A new book argues that this rigorous curriculum actually nurtured the creativity that later flourished...

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