roof
- the external upper covering of a house or other building.
- a frame for supporting this: an open-timbered roof.
- the highest part or summit: The Himalayas are the roof of the world.
- something that in form or position resembles the roof of a house, as the top of a car, the upper part of the mouth, etc.
- a house.
- Mining. the rock immediately above a horizontal mineral deposit.
- to provide or cover with a roof.
- go through the roof,
- to increase beyond all expectations: Foreign travel may very well go through the roof next year.
- Also hit the roof,Informal.to lose one's temper; become extremely angry.
- raise the roof, Informal.
- to create a loud noise: The applause raised the roof.
- to complain or protest noisily: He'll raise the roof when he sees that bill.
Origin of roof
Related Words for roofs
house, ceiling, parapet, covering, shelter, slate, crown, dome, cupola, summit, rafter, canopy, truss, gable, palate, gambrelExamples from the Web for roofs
Contemporary Examples of roofs
Rooftop solar—individual homeowners putting generating systems on their roofs—is also booming in Arizona.
“It pretty much looks like taking a central solar plant and allocating it across 3,000 roofs,” said Rumido.
I know the poorer neighborhoods where the people slept on the roofs and would look at us in awe when we asked for their help.
Chili peppers were everywhere, drying on mats, on roofs, and in fields.
Homeowners may want them on their roofs—but not for $30,000 upfront.
Historical Examples of roofs
They looked from the windows of the hospital, and from the roofs of houses.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
How carefully I packed my pipe, gazing serenely over the roofs of Paris.
Ballads of a BohemianRobert W. Service
Gargoyles at the foot of the flying buttresses carried off the water from the roofs.
The DreamEmile Zola
If they fall upon houses, the roofs are crushed by the weight.
Buried Cities: Pompeii, Olympia, MycenaeJennie Hall
The roofs are all gone and all the partitions inside the houses show.
Buried Cities: Pompeii, Olympia, MycenaeJennie Hall
roof
- a structure that covers or forms the top of a building
- (in combination)the rooftop
- (as modifier)a roof garden
- the top covering of a vehicle, oven, or other structurethe roof of a car
- anatomy any structure that covers an organ or partthe roof of the mouth
- a highest or topmost point or partMount Everest is the roof of the world
- a house or other sheltera poor man's roof
- mountaineering the underside of a projecting overhang
- hit the roof or go through the roof informal
- to get extremely angry; become furious
- to rise or increase steeply
- raise the roof
- to create a boisterous disturbance
- to react or protest heatedly
- (tr) to provide or cover with a roof or rooflike part
Word Origin for roof
Word Origin and History for roofs
roof
Old English hrof "roof, ceiling, top, summit; heaven, sky," also figuratively, "highest point of something," from Proto-Germanic *khrofam (cf. Old Frisian rhoof "roof," Middle Dutch roof, rouf "cover, roof," Dutch roef "deckhouse, cabin, coffin-lid," Middle High German rof "penthouse," Old Norse hrof "boat shed").
No apparent connections outside Germanic. "English alone has retained the word in a general sense, for which the other languages use forms corresponding to OE. þæc thatch" [OED]. Roof of the mouth is from late Old English. Raise the roof "create an uproar" is attested from 1860, originally in U.S. Southern dialect.
roof
early 15c., from roof (n.). Related: Roofed; roofing.
roof
(rōōf, ruf)- The upper surface of an anatomical structure, especially one having a vaulted inner structure.
Idioms and Phrases with roofs
roof
In addition to the idiom beginning with roof
- roof over one's head, a
also see:
- go through the roof
- hit the ceiling (roof)
- like a cat on hot bricks (a hot tin roof)
- raise the roof