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Idiom: Float your boat
Contrary to what your first impression may be, there do not have to be any boats involved in the conversation for you to say, “Whatever floats your boat” to someone.
It means you can do whatever you like and has the nuance that the speaker doesn’t care.
This idiom is often used when someone is exasperated because another person is doing something weird or strange.
For example, at the self-serve drink machines at Costco, some people like to mix their drinks.
Instead of just getting Pepsi, they mix half a cup of Pepsi with half a cup of Sprite or Mountain Dew.
Yes, I think it’s weird and if you do that well, whatever floats your boat.
I have a live-and-let-live policy.
If mixing Pepsi and Sprite floats your boat, go ahead and knock yourself out.
For some people, float your boat has a sexual meaning.
It means you may have some kinky or exceptional preferences.
Hey, people do all sorts of things, so whatever floats your boat or makes you happy is right for you.
Keep in mind it’s not always sexual.
Like most things in language, the usage and meaning of a phrase depend on the context.
Some people like to be pushed around in shopping carts.
For them, it’s heaps of fun and floats their boat.
Personally, it’s not my cup of tea, but again, you can do whatever you want.
To recap, when something floats your boat, it makes you happy, or you enjoy it.
Other people may use the expression with a sexual nuance to say that what you are doing turns you on.
Usage depends on the context of the situation, but I’d say most often, if something is your cup of tea, then it also floats your boat.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 79.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.