scaffold
[skaf-uh ld, -ohld]
- a temporary structure for holding workers and materials during the erection, repair, or decoration of a building.
- an elevated platform on which a criminal is executed, usually by hanging.
- a raised platform or stage for exhibiting spectacles, seating spectators, etc.
- any raised framework.
- a suspended platform that is used by painters, window washers, and others for working on a tall structure, as a skyscraper.
- Metallurgy. any piling or fusion of materials in a blast furnace, obstructing the flow of gases and preventing the uniform descent of the charge.
- a system of raised frameworks; scaffolding.
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- to furnish with a scaffold or scaffolding.
- to support by or place on a scaffold.
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Origin of scaffold
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for scaffold
Contemporary Examples
Two young black men stood under a scaffold outside the church trying to keep dry.
But of course no such “prophetic sight” or “spiritual glance,” as Villard also imagined it, carried that far from the scaffold.
For me, technology is a delightfully helpful crutch to scaffold me into more advanced meditative practices.
Historical Examples
He was therefore condemned, and perished on the scaffold for the crime.
He was adjudged to the scaffold—he smiled when he heard the sentence.
Calderon The CourtierEdward Bulwer-Lytton
At the worst, we are as like to wind up upon a scaffold as not.'
Micah ClarkeArthur Conan Doyle
He was one of the Franciscans who had accompanied Gomez Arias to the scaffold.
Gomez AriasJoaqun Telesforo de Trueba y Coso
She was the only woman who wept upon the scaffold and implored for mercy.
scaffold
- a temporary metal or wooden framework that is used to support workmen and materials during the erection, repair, etc, of a building or other construction
- a raised wooden platform on which plays are performed, tobacco, etc, is dried, or (esp formerly) criminals are executed
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- to provide with a scaffold
- to support by means of a scaffold
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French eschaffaut, from Vulgar Latin catafalicum (unattested); see catafalque
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for scaffold
n.
mid-14c., "wooden framework used in building, etc., temporary structure for workmen to make walls," a shortening of an Old North French variant of Old French eschafaut "scaffold" (Modern French échafaud), probably altered (by influence of eschace "a prop, support") from chaffaut, from Vulgar Latin *catafalicum (see catafalque). Meaning "platform for a hanging" is from 1550s. Dutch schavot, German Schafott, Danish skafot are from French. As a verb from 1540s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper