raft

noun

1. 1

   A flat-bottomed craft able to float and drift on water, used for transport or as a waterborne platform.

   They floated down the river on an inflatable raft

2. 2

   Any flattish thing, usually wooden, used in a similar fashion.

   Even though in a way you let him freeze to death in the water, because the way I see it... I agree. Y'know, I think he actually could have fitted on that bit of door. There was plenty of room on the raft. I know. I know, I know.

3. 3

   A thick crowd of aquatic birds, particularly a group floating on the surface of the water.

   Pelicans, bills stuck forward, would gather in small rafts to move along in comical formation, before diving in unison […]

   Occasionally, there was a large black raft of birds far out at sea.

   Margaret River itself, although it seems to be Scott River by Prevelly, flows into the Indian Ocean and creates a sandbank, where sat a raft of terns and gulls.

4. 4

   A thick crowd of aquatic birds, particularly a group floating on the surface of the water. A group of aquatic mammals, especially otters and especially when visible on the surface of the water.

   A raft of otters at rest in the river.

   Two score and more of young, able-bodied men they were, to be sure, strong enough, I dare say, to tow a raft of whales alongside in any latitude.

   News of Smith's discovery of the South Shetland Islands, and of the rafts of seals along their shores, spread quickly.

   a raft of otters was feeding at the depth of three hundred feet (50 fathoms)

5. 5

   A thick crowd of aquatic birds, particularly a group floating on the surface of the water. A group of alligators or crocodiles, especially when floating in water with their backs visible above the surface.

   She even pointed out a bank where a raft of crocodiles lay dozing, baking their scaly backs in the sun.

   navigation was obstructed by a raft of alligators

   There are monkeys, sloths, macaws, parrots, pigeons, toucans, and many other wood-loving creatures; herons, screamers, jacanas, and jabiru storks in the marshes, capybaras on the shores, and rafts of crocodiles on the playas.

6. 6

   A collection of logs, fallen trees, etc. which obstructs navigation in a river.

7. 7

   slangA slice of toast.

8. 8

   A square array of sensors forming part of a large telescope.

9. 9

   A mass of congealed solids that forms on a consommé because of the protein in the egg white.

verb

1. 1

   To convey on a raft.

   For timber I imported pine logs from Manchuria, rafted them two hundred miles down the Yalu River, three hundred miles over the Yellow Sea, and twenty miles up the Tatung River, where a thirty-five-foot tide lifted the consignment to Pyongyang.

2. 2

   To make into a raft.

3. 3

   To travel by raft.

4. 4

   To dock (toolbars, etc.) so that they share horizontal or vertical space.

   The ToolStripContainer provides built-in rafting and docking of ToolStrip, MenuStrip, and StatusStrip controls.

noun

1. 1

   A large (but unspecified) number, a lot.

   Among those arrested was the grand master himself, Jacques de Molay, who found himself facing a raft of charges based on the specious evidence of former knights [...].

   The goals and entertainment dried up after the break as Wales made a raft of substitutions but, with more meaningful challenges to come, a capacity crowd at the Stok Racecourse appreciated the bigger picture with Croatia on the horizon.

verb

1. 1

   Also a form of reavearchaicsimple past and past participle of reave

   Colin Clout raft me of his brother

Forms

plural

rafts

past tense

rafted

past participle

rafted

present participle

rafting

third person singular

rafts