Buoy
any floating body employed to point out the particular situation of a ship's anchor, a shoal, the direction of a navigable channel, etc. They are made BURBAGE of wood, or, now, more commonly of metal. They are generally moored by chains to the bed of the channel, etc. They are of various shapes, and receive corresponding names; thus, there are the can buoy, the nun buoy, the bell buoy, the mooring buoy, the whistling buoy, etc. The name is also given to a floating object intended to keep a person afloat till he can be taken from the water: more particularly called a life buoy.