flote meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

flote

noun

/fləʊt/

Etymology Compare French flot, Latin fluctus; also compare float (noun).

Ar. […]and for the reſt o'th' Fleet (Which I diſpers'd) they all haue met againe, And are vpon the Mediterranean Flote Bound ſadly home for Naples, Suppoſing that they ſaw the Kings ſhip wrackt, And his great perſon periſh.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 4:

verb

Archaic To fleet; to skim.

seald their Milk before they flote it1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, →OCLC: