roof
nounverbcommon in dialogue
- //ɹuːf//
- //ɹʊf//
The external covering at the top of a building.
noun
- 1
The external covering at the top of a building.
The roof was blown off by the tornado.
'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
The very first sound that you’ll hear on the roof (Provided there’s fog) will be Rudolph’s small hoof.
The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire! We don't need no water: Let the motherfucker burn! Burn, motherfucker, burn!
- 2
The top external level of a building.
Let's go up to the roof.
When this old world starts getting me down And people are just too much for me to face, I climb way up to the top of the stairs And all my cares just drift right into space On the roof, it's peaceful as can be And there, the world below can't bother me...
- 3
The upper part of a cavity.
The palate is the roof of the mouth.
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.
- 4
The surface or bed of rock immediately overlying a bed of coal or a flat vein.
- 5
An overhanging rock wall.
- 6
archaicA hat.
Tom thought his cap a very knowing affair, but confessed that he had a hat in his hat-box; which was accordingly at once extracted from the hind-boot, and Tom equipped in his go-to-meeting roof, as his new friend called it.
Etymology
From Middle English rhof, rof, roof, rooff, rufe, ruffe, from Old English hrōf (“roof; heaven, sky”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrōf, from Proto-Germanic *hrōfą (“roof”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrapo- (“roof”), from *krāwə- (“to cover, heap”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch roef (“cabin on a boat”), Faroese rógv (“roof”); also Czech, Polish, and Slovene strop (“ceiling”), Russian строп (strop, “attic, loft, roof”), Serbo-Croatian стро̏п, strȍp (“ceiling”).
verb
- 1
To cover or furnish with a roof.
A trench about ten feet deep was dug in the ground and roofed over with sticks and earth so as to form a dark tunnel.
- 2
To traverse buildings by walking or climbing across their roofs.
- 3
slangTo put into prison, to bird.
Did you see them, David? I mean, did you see them looking at me? I-I'm walking out of the court, and everybody was practically – yeah, they were gawking. […] I mean, Noah roofed me, I proved it, end of story.
I’m open, hype off the chronic I was smoking, feeling zooted That Brooklyn shit got me stupid I’m loose, kid – that’s what the overproof did What the ruck you looking at, son? You’ll get roofed, kid!
Inhale the mystical, the blue shit See me on the stoop shit, act stupid at the park, the ball, get roofed Baby see the cops, the drugs, she boofed it Foie gras at every meal, that means I triple-goosed it
You don’t want war, you’re shook of it Hella man dash when their friend got roofed
- 4
To shelter as if under a roof.
They reached him: the pieces of rock had roofed him over—he was without injury or scratch.
It built him softly round, it roofed him warmly over, it rested, all so firm, on selection.
Etymology
From Middle English rofen, roven (“to roof”), from the noun (see above).
Forms
- plural
- roofs, rooves
- past tense
- roofed
- past participle
- roofed
- present participle
- roofing
- third person singular
- roofs
roof · The external covering at the top of a building.
Roof · A Chinese constellation located near Aquarius and Pegasus,…rooftop · The area atop a roof.Rooftop · Synonym of Roof, a Chinese constellation.