gambrel roof

See synonyms for gambrel roof on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a gable roof, each side of which has a shallower slope above a steeper one.: Compare mansard (def. 1).

Origin of gambrel roof

1
An Americanism dating back to 1755–65

Other words from gambrel roof

  • gambrel-roofed, adjective

Words Nearby gambrel roof

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use gambrel roof in a sentence

  • Two large windows, one in each end of the gambrel roof, afforded light and air.

    Peggy Owen at Yorktown | Lucy Foster Madison
  • The gambrel roof appeared before the eighteenth century and was commonly used in New England farmhouses.

    Remodeled Farmhouses | Mary H. Northend
  • The next roof-form, built from early colonial days, and popular a century ago, was what was known as the gambrel roof.

    Home Life in Colonial Days | Alice Morse Earle
  • The gambrel roof had a certain grace of outline, especially when joined with lean-tos and other additions.

    Home Life in Colonial Days | Alice Morse Earle
  • It was quite an old frame-building, two stories high, with a gambrel roof and tall chimneys.

British Dictionary definitions for gambrel roof

gambrel roof

noun
  1. mainly British a hipped roof having a small gable at both ends

  2. mainly US and Canadian a roof having two slopes on both sides, the lower slopes being steeper than the upper: Compare mansard (def. 1)

  • Sometimes shortened to: gambrel

Derived forms of gambrel roof

  • gambrel-roofed, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012