scaffold

[ skaf-uhld, -ohld ]

/ ˈskæf əld, -oʊld /

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See synonyms for: scaffold / scaffolded / scaffolding on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

to furnish with a scaffold or scaffolding.

to support by or place on a scaffold.

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Origin of scaffold

1300–50; Middle English scaffot, skaffaut, scaffalde<Old French escadafaut; akin to catafalque

OTHER WORDS FROM scaffold

un·scaf·fold·ed, adjective

Words nearby scaffold

scabrous, scad, scads, Scaevola, Scafell Pike, scaffold, scaffolding, scaffold nail, scag, scagliola, Scala

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

How to use scaffold in a sentence

You, the parent, are the scaffold that surrounds the building.
The Strange Allure of a Flight to Nowhere (and Other Places We're Desperate to Go)|Susanna Schrobsdorff|February 7, 2021|Time
After the cells grew and divided, the researchers placed them in a gel scaffold and bathed the cells in hormones.
No Trees Harmed: MIT Aims to One Day Grow Your Kitchen Table in a Lab|Jason Dorrier|January 24, 2021|Singularity Hub
Within this capsule the scientists could make out the stirrup-shaped basal plate, which acts as a scaffold for softer tissues such as the inflated phallus, Swanson said.
Feast your eyes on this 50-million-year-old assassin bug and its exquisite genitalia|Kate Baggaley|January 20, 2021|Popular-Science
We basically create a scaffold that provides the right guidance…for cells to take up fats in different places or become more striated.
This Startup Is Growing Sushi-Grade Salmon From Cells in a Lab|Vanessa Bates Ramirez|September 16, 2020|Singularity Hub

Other innovative approaches have used apples as scaffolds for ears, or added antibiotics and other medication directly inside 3D-printed bones to help battle inflammation.
Scientists 3D Printed Ears Inside Living Mice Using Light|Shelly Fan|June 9, 2020|Singularity Hub
Two young black men stood under a scaffold outside the church trying to keep dry.
New York's Next Killer-Cop Grand Jury|Jacob Siegel|December 6, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But of course no such “prophetic sight” or “spiritual glance,” as Villard also imagined it, carried that far from the scaffold.
When Robert E. Lee Met John Brown and Saved the Union|Michael Korda|May 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
For me, technology is a delightfully helpful crutch to scaffold me into more advanced meditative practices.
High-Tech Meditation: Swap Your Yogi for a Headset|Gregory Ferenstein|April 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
They were seeded in a lab onto a plastic scaffold, where it took less than a week for them to multiply and create a new windpipe.
The Power of Stem Cell Research Saves a Little Girl|Ilana Glazer|May 1, 2013|DAILY BEAST
And he walked into Lombard Street with the feelings of a culprit walking up the scaffold to his execution.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
A Workman, who was mounted on a high scaffold to repair a town clock, fell from his elevated station, upon a man who was passing.
The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun;|Various
The Tories were reminded that his soldiers had guarded the scaffold before the Banqueting House.
The History of England from the Accession of James II.|Thomas Babington Macaulay
She was summoned to present herself before the Convention, to confront her accuser, and defend herself from the scaffold.
Madame Roland, Makers of History|John S. C. Abbott
Madame Roland had continued writing her memoirs until the hour in which she left her cell for the scaffold.
Madame Roland, Makers of History|John S. C. Abbott

British Dictionary definitions for scaffold

scaffold

/ (ˈskæfəld, -fəʊld) /

noun

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

verb (tr)

to provide with a scaffold

to support by means of a scaffold

Derived forms of scaffold

scaffolder, noun

Word Origin for scaffold

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

scaffold

Origin of scaffold

OTHER WORDS FROM scaffold

Words nearby scaffold

Words related to scaffold

How to use scaffold in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for scaffold

Derived forms of scaffold

Word Origin for scaffold