rafter

English

Etymology

Old English ræfter. Cognate with "raft".

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈɹɑːftə(ɹ)/
• (Canada, US) IPA: /ˈɹæftəɹ/

Noun

rafter (plural rafters)

1. One of a series of sloped beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.
   • 1945, George Orwell, Animal Farm, chapter 1

     […] the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters,

2. flock of turkeys

Translations

series of sloped beams

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 椽 (cmn) (chuán), 椽子 (cmn) (chuánzi)

• Dalmatian: trua f
• Esperanto: ĉevrono (eo)
• Finnish: kattopiiru (fi), piiru (fi)
• French: chevron (fr) m
• German: Sparren (de) m
• Italian: travetto m, travicello m

• Japanese: 垂木 (ja) (たるき, taruki)
• Jèrriais: crévon m
• Korean: 서까래 (ko) (seokkarae)
• Lithuanian: gegnė (lt) f
• Macedonian: сплав (mk) (spláv) m, скеле (mk) (skéle) n, чатма (mk) (čátma) f
• Maori: heke (mi)
• Romanian: căprior, stâlp înclinat de susținere
• Russian: стропило (ru) (stropílo) n, балка (ru) (bálka) f (beam)
• Spanish: viga (es) f

Verb

rafter (third-person singular simple present rafters, present participle raftering, simple past and past participle raftered)

1. (transitive) To make (timber, etc.) into rafters.
2. (transitive) To furnish (a building) with rafters.
3. (UK, agriculture) To plough so as to turn the grass side of each furrow upon an unploughed ridge; to ridge.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.

Anagrams

• farter