rafter

See also: Rafter

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɑːftə(ɹ)/
• (Canada, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹæftəɹ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːftə(ɹ), -æftə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Old English ræfter, of Germanic origin, related to the origin of raft.

Noun

rafter (plural rafters)

1. (architecture) 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 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:

     […] the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters

2. (collective) A flock of turkeys.

Derived terms

• jack rafter
• packed to the rafters
• rafter snapper

Translations

one of a series of sloped beams

• Armenian: ծպեղ (hy) (cpeġ)
• Bulgarian: мертек (bg) m (mertek)
• Catalan: biga (ca) f, jàssena (ca) f, jàssera (ca) f
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: krokev (cs) f
• Dalmatian: trua f
• Dutch: dakspant (nl) n
• Esperanto: ĉevrono
• Finnish: kattopiiru, piiru (fi)
• French: chevron (fr) m
• Galician: cango m, tesoira (gl) f
• German: Sparren (de) m

  Alemannic German: Tilbaum

• Greek:

  Ancient: στρωτήρ m (strōtḗr)

• Hawaiian: kua, oʻa
• Hungarian: tetőgerenda (hu), szarufa (hu)
• Irish: rachta m
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} travetto m, ^{(please verify)} travicello (it) m, passafuori m, trave (it) f, puntone (it) m
• Japanese: 垂木 (たるき, taruki)
• Kikuyu: mũitĩrĩro class 3
• Korean: 서까래 (ko) (seokkarae)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کاریتە‎ (karîte)

  Northern Kurdish: karîte (ku)

• Latin: trabs (la) f
• Lithuanian: gegnė f
• Macedonian: сплав m (splav), скеле n (skele), чатма f (čatma)
• Malay: kasau (ms)
• Mansaka: kasaw
• Maori: heke, nehe
• Middle English: sparre
• Norman: crévon m
• Occitan: cabiron (oc) m
• Ottoman Turkish: مرتك‎ (mertek)
• Plautdietsch: Baulkjen m, Spoa n, Dakspoa n
• Polish: krokiew (pl) f
• Portuguese: caibro (pt) m, viga (pt) f, trave (pt) f
• Romanian: căprior (ro) m
• Russian: стропи́ло (ru) n (stropílo), ба́лка (ru) f (bálka) (beam)
• Scottish Gaelic: cabar m
• Spanish: viga (es) f, jácena (es) f
• Swedish: taksparre c, sparre (sv) c
• Tagalog: balakilan
• Telugu: వాసము (te) (vāsamu)
• Thai: จันทัน (th) (jan-tan)
• Turkish: mertek (tr)
• Ukrainian: кроква f (krokva)
• Welsh: tulath f, ceibren 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.
(See the entry for “rafter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Etymology 2

raft +‎ -er

Noun

rafter (plural rafters)

1. A raftsman.

Anagrams

• Frater, farter, frater