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)

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)

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

• rafting
  noun

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

Tempelhof airport in Berlin closed nearly 16 years ago, but one of its hangars will become the venue for the Komische Oper’s staging of Hans Werner Henze’s “The Raft of the Medusa.”

From New York Times • Sep. 14, 2023

At Raft Cove, where one of the containers beached, 95% of the contents have been loaded into debris bags that are being prepared for a helicopter lift.

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

Some of these accounts are legendary, such as a case that was immortalized by French artist Théodore Géricault in his painting The Raft of the Medusa.

From Scientific American • Apr. 16, 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