raft

¹ American  

[raft, rahft] / ræft, rɑft /

noun

1. a more or less rigid floating platform made of buoyant material or materials.

   an inflatable rubber raft.

2. a collection of logs, planks, casks, etc., fastened together for floating on water.

3. life raft.

4. Building Trades. a slab of reinforced concrete providing a footing on yielding soil, usually for a whole building, so that the weight of the soil that would be displaced by the settlement of the building exceeds the weight of the building itself; mat.

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verb (used with object)

rafts, present (3rd person singular) rafted, past participle, past rafting present participle

1. to transport on a raft.

2. to form (logs or the like) into a raft.

3. to travel or cross by raft.

4. (of an ice floe) to transport (embedded organic or rock debris) from the shore out to sea.

verb (used without object)

rafts, present (3rd person singular) rafted, past participle, past rafting present participle

1. to use a raft; go or travel on a raft.

2. (of an ice floe) to overlap another ice floe.

raft ² American  

[raft, rahft] / ræft, rɑft /

noun

Informal.

1. a great quantity; a lot.

   a whole raft of trouble.

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raft ¹ British  

/ rɑːft /

noun

1. a buoyant platform of logs, planks, etc, used as a vessel or moored platform

2. a thick slab of reinforced concrete laid over soft ground to provide a foundation for a building

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verb

1. to convey on or travel by raft, or make a raft from

raft ² British  

/ rɑːft /

noun

1. informal a large collection or amount

   a raft of old notebooks discovered in a cupboard

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• rafting
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• rafting
  present
• rafted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• raft
  simple
• rafts
  simple
• have rafted
  perfect
• has rafted
  perfect
• am rafting
  progressive
• are rafting
  progressive
• is rafting
  progressive
• have been rafting
  perfect progressive
• has been rafting
  perfect progressive

Past

• rafted
  simple
• had rafted
  perfect
• was rafting
  progressive
• were rafting
  progressive
• had been rafting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will raft
  simple
• will have rafted
  perfect
• will be rafting
  progressive
• will have been rafting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of raft¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English raft(e), “(wooden) beam, spear,” from Old Norse raptr rafter ¹

Origin of raft²

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35; variant of raff

Explanation

A raft is a vessel or structure that's made to float on water. You might have an inflatable raft you use for floating around your backyard pool. Rafts come in many forms, from soft and squishy to wooden and permanent, like the rafts built on lakes for swimmers to rest on and dive off. Other rafts are mobile — they're small, flat boats meant for transporting people or goods across a river, for example. If you raft, you travel by raft. Experts guess that raft comes from the Old Norse word raptr, "log."

Example Sentences

Key to the success of Life Raft has been Woody, the conservation dog, using his super-smelling powers to ensure there were no remaining ferrets.

From BBC • Mar. 22, 2026

Her arresting voice got her paired with the Flennoy Trio and, Mr. Byers said, also got her a film role as a nightclub singer in the 1946 George Raft movie “Mr. Ace.”

From New York Times • Dec. 7, 2022

At Raft Cove, the ship’s contractor & members of the Quatsino First Nation supported the removal of 123 garbage bags & 65 bulk bags in 35 trips made by two 🚁.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 9, 2021

The tragedy would later inspire one of the biggest paintings of the 19th century, the 16-by-23-foot The Raft of The Medusa.

From Salon • Aug. 7, 2021

“I’m holding it in my lap. Gericault's Raft of the Medusa by Lorenz E. A. Eitner. It’s a beautiful book, Ari.”

From "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Related Words

• barge
• boat
• life raft
• lifeboat