jack rafter

English

Noun

jack rafter (plural jack rafters)

1. (UK) One of the shorter rafters used in constructing a hip or valley roof.
2. (US) Any secondary roof timber, such as the common rafters resting on purlins in a trussed roof; also, one of the pieces simulating extended rafters, used under the eaves in some styles of building.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “jack rafter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)