floss
A thread used to clean the gaps between the teethA thread used to clean the gaps between the teeth.
Recorded US: Dvortygirl, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
» I floss my teeth every day.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRTranslations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 3
Examples
41 sentencesMeaning
10 senses(countable, uncountable)A thread used to clean the gaps between the teeth.
a soft thread for cleaning the spaces between the teeth
(UK, countable, uncountable)Spun sugar or cotton candy, especially in the phrase "candy floss".
Zuckerwatte
са́харная ва́таsáxarnaja váta
(countable, uncountable)The fibres covering a corncob etc.; the loose downy or silky material inside the husks of certain plants, such as beans.
Maiskolbenfaser
More meanings 7
(countable, uncountable)Raw silk fibres.
Rohseide, Seidenfaser
(countable, uncountable)Any thread-like material having parallel strands that are not spun or wound around each other.
embroidery floss
(countable, uncountable)A body feather of an ostrich.
Flosses are soft, and grey from the female and black from the male.
(countable, uncountable)A dance move in which the dancer repeatedly swings their arms, with clenched fists, from the back of their body to the front, on each side.
(UK)A small stream of water.
Fluid glass floating on iron in the puddling furnace, produced by the vitrification of oxides and earths which are present.
(Northern England, Scotland)The common rush (Juncus effusus).
Origin
From dialectal flosh (“a flush, stream of water, sluice”), from Middle English flosche,From dialectal flosh (“a flush, stream of water, sluice”), from Middle English flosche, flusche, flasche, flaske (“a watery or marshy place, swamp”), perhaps from Old French flache, from Middle Dutch vlacke (“a flat area, plain”), ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *fleutan. Compare also German Floss (“a float”).
Origin obscure. Perhaps of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian flos, flus (“rind, scale, strip peeled off”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: flossesSynonyms
3 synonyms- a soft thread for cleaning the spaces between the teeth:dental floss
Word family
11 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.