raft

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   make into a raft

   Raft these logs.

2. 2
   verb

   transport on a raft

   Raft wood down a river.

3. 3
   noun

   A flat-bottomed craft able to float and drift on water, used for transport or as a waterborne platform.

   They floated down the river on an inflatable raft.

4. 4
   verb

   To dock (toolbars, etc.) so that they share horizontal or vertical space.

   The ToolStripContainer provides built-in rafting and docking of ToolStrip, MenuStrip, and StatusStrip controls.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

In the Middle Ages raft meant a beam or rafter and came from Old Norse raptr, “rafter”; rafter comes from the same root. The sense “a large amount” appeared in the 19th century and probably represents an alteration of dialectal raff, “abundance,” through association with raft meaning a floating mass.

Late Middle English, of North Germanic origin, from West Old Norse raptr, from Proto-Germanic *raf-tra-, from Proto-Indo-European *rap-tro-, from *rep- (“stake, beam”). See also Norwegian raft (“beam, rafter”), Danish raft (“thin pole”). Compare also Albanian trap (“raft, ferry”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary