Float someone’s boat

Origin of: Float someone’s boat

Float someone’s boat

To float someone’s boat is to excite, arouse, or turn someone on and is sometimes used in a sexual sense. This Americanism dates from the early 1980s and often appears in the form of ‘whatever floats your boat’ i.e. whatever turns you on and, in an overt sexual way; he or she can ‘float my boat anytime’.