Roof
Pronunciation ,
- IPA: /ɹuËf/, /ɹʊf/
- Rhymes: -ÊŠf, -uËf
Origin
From Middle English rof, from Old English hrÅf ("roof, ceiling; top, summit; heaven, sky"), from Proto-Germanic *hrÅfÄ… ("roof"), from Proto-Indo-European *krÄpo- ("roof"), from Proto-Indo-European *krÄwÇ- ("to cover, heap"). Cognate with Scots ruif ("roof"), Dutch roef ("a cabin, wooden cover, deckhouse"), Low German rof ("roof"), Icelandic hróf ("a shed under which ships are built or kept, roof of a boathouse").
Full definition of roof
Noun
- The cover at the top of a building.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path …. It twisted and turned,...and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
- 1931, Robert L. May, Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Montgomery Ward (publisher), draft:The very first sound that you’ll hear on the roof
(Provided there’s fog) will be Rudolph’s small hoof. - The upper part of a cavity.
- 2011, October 1, John Sinnott, Aston Villa 2-0 Wigan, As Bent pulled away to the far post, Agbonlahor opted to go it alone, motoring past Gary Caldwell before unleashing a shot into the roof of the net.
- The palate is the roof of the mouth.Archaeologists discovered that the cave's roof was decked with paintings.
- (mining) The surface or bed of rock immediately overlying a bed of coal or a flat vein.
Usage notes
The plural rooves is uncommon and is usually considered incorrect, though it is parallel to more common plurals like hooves and staves.
In referring to the top of a building, refers both to the object itself (“the roof was blown off in the tornadoâ€) and to the location of being on the roof (“it can be dangerous to go on the roof to fix the antennaâ€). In the later sense (of “locationâ€) it is often used attributively, largely interchangeably with rooftop.