name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   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.

   "[…] the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters"

2. 2
   A raftsman.
3. 3
   one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof wordnet
4. 4
   A flock of turkeys. collective
5. 5
   someone who travels by raft wordnet

Verb

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

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms

raftsmanangle rafterbalkbalkbattenbaulk

Example

More examples

"Mary tried to smither her way out of the dark basement but hit her head on the rafter and fainted."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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

Etymology 2

From raft + -er.

Related phrases

jack rafterpacked to the raftersrafter snappervalley rafter

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.