Definition of "floor"

floor

/flɔː/

noun
plural floors
1. The interior bottom or surface of a house or building; the supporting surface of a room.
  Quotations
  A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.
  1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], page 0016
2. (geology, biology, chiefly with a modifier) The bottom surface of a natural structure, entity, or space (e.g. cave, forest, ocean, desert, etc.); the ground (surface of the Earth).
3. (UK, dialectal, colloquial) The ground.
4. (construction, architecture) A structure formed of beams, girders, etc, with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into storeys/stories.
5. The supporting surface or platform of a structure such as a bridge.
6. (architecture) A storey/story of a building.
  Quotations
  When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎
7. In a parliament, the part of the house assigned to the members, as opposed to the viewing gallery.
8. (by extension) The right to speak at a given time during a debate or other public event.
9. (nautical) That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal.
10. (mining) A horizontal, flat ore body; the rock underlying a stratified or nearly horizontal deposit.
11. (mining) The bottom of a pit, pothole or mine.
12. (mathematics) The largest integer less than or equal to a given number.
13. (gymnastics) An event performed on a floor-like carpeted surface; floor exercise
14. (gymnastics) A floor-like carpeted surface for performing gymnastic movements.
15. (finance) A lower limit on the interest rate payable on an otherwise variable-rate loan, used by lenders to defend against falls in interest rates. Opposite of a cap.
16. A dance floor.
  Quotations
  She's a maniac, maniac on the floor / And she's dancing like she never danced before
  1983, "Maniac", Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky
  Open the door, get on the floor / Everybody walk the dinosaur
  1987, "Walk the Dinosaur", Was (Not Was)
17. The trading floor of a stock exchange, pit; the area in which business is conducted at a convention or exhibition.
18. The area of a casino where gambling occurs.
  Quotations
  At each table stood a young, slim, poker-faced croupier serving the punters who anxiously watched the turning of the cards. The next two floors were similar though not quite as spectacular and the stakes were lower.
  2004, Tim Hatton, Tock Tock Birds: A Spider in the Web of International Terrorism‎, page 284
19. The area of an establishment where food and drink are served to customers.
  Quotations
  The conference started as an impromptu session in the coffee shop this morning when waitresses walked off the floor rather than serve four Negro men and women delegates.
  1947 March 18, U.S Government Printing Office, Proceedings and Debates of the Congress, Eightieth Congress, First Session, page 2206
verb
third-person singular simple present floors, present participle flooring, simple past and past participle floored
1. (transitive) To cover or furnish with a floor.
  Quotations
  The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, […].
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎
2. To strike down or lay level with the floor; to knock down.
  Quotations
  Sam floored him perpetually, and beat his face to a jelly, without getting a scratch.
  1821, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, volume 8, page 67
3. (informal, dated) To hang (a picture on exhibition) near the base of a wall, where it cannot easily be seen.
4. (driving, transitive, slang) To push (a pedal) down to the floor, especially to accelerate.
5. (informal, transitive) To silence by a conclusive answer or retort.
  Quotations
  Floored or crushed by him.
  c. 1827-1833, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Hacket
6. (informal, transitive) To amaze or greatly surprise.
  Quotations
  Some of the attendees were “absolutely floored,” said an official familiar with the proceedings. That someone in the U.S. government could “make an argument that is so nakedly against transparency, in light of the unfolding catastrophe, was…shocking and disturbing.”
  2021 June 3, Katherine Eban, “The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins”, in Vanity Fair‎
7. (colloquial, transitive) To finish or make an end of.
  Quotations
  I've floored my little-go work
  1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], Tom Brown at Oxford: […], (please specify |part=1 or 2), Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861
8. (mathematics) To set a lower bound.