rafter

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So she flew across to another rafter, and lit on Grannie Malone's black coat that she wore to Mass on Sundays.

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Definitions (20)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun One who travels by raft.
  2. noun One of the sloping beams that supports a pitched roof.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • A layer of grime and soot covered the rafter, and I was grateful that Joscelin had given me his coat. —  Carey, Jaqueline - Kushiel's Dart orig
  • No one's doubted the Riverboat Gamblers 'ability to entertain, thanks to frontman Mike Wiebe's rafter-climbing acrobatics and frequent forays into the audience. —  The Pitch | Complete Issue
  • As a whitewater rafter, the above cartoon has found a very special place inside me as part of my identity. —  Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta.
  • "The nearest rafter is a foot below. —  Canoe Boys and Campfires Adventures on Winding Waters
  • I may be right and I may be wrong, but at all events don't you fellows be scared if you hear a big splash We won't," whispered Randy Then the plank was dropped noiselessly over the hole Ned straddled the rafter--it was too dark to risk an upright position--and made his way to the nearest end, which terminated in one of the walls of masonry that formed the sides of the sluiceway, and on which the mill partially rested. —  Canoe Boys and Campfires Adventures on Winding Waters
 

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This word has been looked up 141 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

plank ·  girder ·  shingle ·  planking ·  woodwork ·  thatch ·  beam ·  gable ·  bough ·  cornice ·  ceil ·  staircase

Used in the same contextWord Family

rafter:   rafters
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English ræfter.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English rafter, refter, from Anglo-Saxon ræfter, plural ræftras, reftres (= Middle Dutch rafter = Middle Low German rafter, raffert), a beam, rafter; with formative -er, from ræft = Icelandic raptr (raftr) = Swedish Danish raft, a rafter, beam: see raft.
  2. from rafter, n.
  3. from raft + -er.
 

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/ˈræftər/
by American Heritage

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