rafter

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In building, one of the beams which give the slope of a roof, and to which is secured the lath or other framework upon which the slate or other outer covering is nailed. The rafters extend from the eaves to the ridge of the roof, abutting at their upper ends on corresponding rafters rising from the opposite side of the roof, or resting against a crown-plate or ridge-plate as the case may be. For the different kinds of rafters in a structure, see roof, and cuts under curb-roof, jack-rafter, and pontoon.
2. n. Same as carline, 2.
3. n. In anatomy, a trabecule or trabeculum: as, the rafters of the embryonic skull.
4. To form into or like rafters: as, to rafter timber.
5. To furnish or build with rafters: as, to rafter a house.
6. In agriculture, to plow, as a piece of land, by turning the grass side of the plowed furrow on a strip of ground left unplowed.
7. n. One who is employed in rafting timber, or transporting it in rafts, as from a ship to the shore.

Wiktionary

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

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A raftsman.
2. n. (Arch.) Originally, any rough and somewhat heavy piece of timber. Now, commonly, one of the timbers of a roof which are put on sloping, according to the inclination of the roof. See Illust. of queen-post.
3. v. To make into rafters, as timber.
4. v. To furnish with rafters, as a house.
5. v. (Agric.), engraving To plow so as to turn the grass side of each furrow upon an unplowed ridge; to ridge.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. provide (a ceiling) with rafters
2. n. one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof
3. n. someone who travels by raft