scaffolding

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A scaffold or system of scaffolds.
2. n. Materials used for constructing scaffolds.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A frame or structure for temporary support in an elevated place; in building, a temporary combination of timberwork consisting of upright poles and horizontal pieces, on which are laid boards for supporting the builders when carrying up the different stages or floors of a building, or plasterers when executing their work in the interior of houses. The scaffolding is struck or removed as soon as it has answered its purpose. See cut under putlog.
2. n. Materials for scaffolds.
3. n. Figuratively, any sustaining part; a frame or framework, as the skeleton; especially, in embryology, a temporary formation of hard parts to be replaced by or modified into a permanent structure: as, the scaffolding of an embryonic skull.
4. n. In metallurgy, the formation of a scaffold; an engorgement. See scaffold, 7.
5. n. In tobacco-growing, the hanging of the freshly cut plant upon a structure of poles or rails variously supported to wilt before housing: much practised in the heavy export and white Burley districts.

Wiktionary

1. n. A temporary modular system of tubes forming a framework used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A scaffold; a supporting framework.
2. n. Materials for building scaffolds.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a system of scaffolds