roof

roof [roof, roo f] ExamplesWord Origin noun, plural roofs.

1. the external upper covering of a house or other building.
2. a frame for supporting this: an open-timbered roof.
3. the highest part or summit: The Himalayas are the roof of the world.
4. 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.
5. a house.
6. Mining. the rock immediately above a horizontal mineral deposit.

verb (used with object)

7. to provide or cover with a roof.

Idioms

8. go through the roof,
   1. to increase beyond all expectations: Foreign travel may very well go through the roof next year.
   2. Also hit the roof,Informal.to lose one’s temper; become extremely angry.
9. raise the roof, Informal.
   1. to create a loud noise: The applause raised the roof.
   2. to complain or protest noisily: He’ll raise the roof when he sees that bill.

Origin of roof before 900; Middle English (noun); Old English hrōf; cognate with Dutch roef cover, cabin, Old Norse hrōf Related formsroof·like, adjectivere·roof, verb (used with object)self-roofed, adjectiveun·der·roof, nounun·roofed, adjective Related Words for roofs house, ceiling, parapet, covering, shelter, slate, crown, dome, cupola, summit, rafter, canopy, truss, gable, palate, gambrel Examples from the Web for roofs Contemporary Examples of roofs

Rooftop solar—individual homeowners putting generating systems on their roofs—is also booming in Arizona.

Panel Discussion

The Daily Beast

September 8, 2014

“It pretty much looks like taking a central solar plant and allocating it across 3,000 roofs,” said Rumido.

Panel Discussion

The Daily Beast

September 8, 2014

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.

Mosul’s Civilization and Its Discontents

Michael Carson

June 14, 2014

Chili peppers were everywhere, drying on mats, on roofs, and in fields.

A Little Too Off the Beaten Path in Burma

Katya Cengel

June 2, 2014

Homeowners may want them on their roofs—but not for $30,000 upfront.

Solar Panels Now Being Offered as a Prebuilt Feature in California

Daniel Gross

May 20, 2014

Historical Examples of roofs

They looked from the windows of the hospital, and from the roofs of houses.

The Grand Old Man

Richard B. Cook

How carefully I packed my pipe, gazing serenely over the roofs of Paris.

Ballads of a Bohemian

Robert W. Service

Gargoyles at the foot of the flying buttresses carried off the water from the roofs.

The Dream

Emile Zola

If they fall upon houses, the roofs are crushed by the weight.

Buried Cities: Pompeii, Olympia, Mycenae

Jennie Hall

The roofs are all gone and all the partitions inside the houses show.

Buried Cities: Pompeii, Olympia, Mycenae

Jennie Hall

British Dictionary definitions for roofs roof noun plural roofs (ruːfs, ruːvz)

1. 1. a structure that covers or forms the top of a building
   2. (in combination)the rooftop
   3. (as modifier)a roof garden
2. the top covering of a vehicle, oven, or other structurethe roof of a car
3. anatomy any structure that covers an organ or partthe roof of the mouth
4. a highest or topmost point or partMount Everest is the roof of the world
5. a house or other sheltera poor man’s roof
6. mountaineering the underside of a projecting overhang
7. hit the roof or go through the roof informal
   1. to get extremely angry; become furious
   2. to rise or increase steeply
8. raise the roof
   1. to create a boisterous disturbance
   2. to react or protest heatedly

verb

9. (tr) to provide or cover with a roof or rooflike part

Derived Formsroofer, nounroofless, adjectiverooflike, adjectiveWord Origin for roof Old English hrōf; related to Middle Dutch, Old Norse hrōf Word Origin and History for roofs roof n.

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 v.

early 15c., from roof (n.). Related: Roofed; roofing.

roofs in Medicine roof [rōōf, ruf] n.

1. 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