floating in ether
- idiom
- Informal
:
flotar en el éter
- She described her experience as floating in ether after recovering from the anesthesia.
Examples
-
For hours after the concert, I felt like I was floating in ether.
-
After the meditation, I felt like I was floating in ether.
-
After the news, he walked home floating in ether, oblivious to the world around him.
-
I feel floating in ether!
-
After the meditation session, I felt like I was floating in ether, completely at peace with my thoughts.
-
After winning the competition, she walked around the city floating in ether, feeling as if she was in a dream.
-
He sat in the sun, floating in ether, lost in thoughts of the future and oblivious to the passage of time.
Synonyms
2
6.8
A deep daze when a person is unaware of what is happening
2
9.9
A feeling that the world around you seems unreal or distant
1
4.2
A relaxed, comfortable feeling of being lost in pleasant daydreams
Antonyms
How Detached
- Specialized
16
8.7
- Informal
- Informal
1
8.7
1
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'feeling light, detached, or dreamlike' is directly and transparently built from 'floating' (drifting), 'in' (located within), and 'ether' (the upper/heavenly air); the image of drifting in the upper air naturally conveys detachment or euphoria. This compositional metaphor is common cross-linguistically (similar to 'in the clouds'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Floating in ether comes from old images and old medicine: imagine floating in a thin, invisible substance called ether, or the dreamy, sleepy feeling after doctors used a gas called 'ether' in operations. That's why floating in ether means 'feeling light, detached, or dreamlike'.