Noun
the roof of a car
The roof of the old barn collapsed.
He bit into a hot slice of pizza and burned the roof of his mouth. Verb
fed and roofed the emergency volunteers for a week
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Noun
By December, Seattle taxpayers were paying a hefty $4,200 a month per empty room — at a time when thousands of Seattleites were without a roof over their heads.—Ashley Hiruko, ProPublica, 6 Oct. 2025 Security footage from the bar showed Wallen throw an object over the roof, according to his arrest affidavit.—Kirsten Fiscus, Nashville Tennessean, 6 Oct. 2025
Verb
Shannon Lane, who eclipsed 100 career points as a sophomore last year, roofed a highlight-reel reverse chip to the top shelf in the first quarter for a 1-0 lead.—Tom Mulherin, Boston Herald, 22 Sep. 2025 The insects can be found in rural or suburban areas and usually hide in the walls or roof crevices of houses and nearby outbuildings.—Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 20 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for roof
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, from Old English hrōf; akin to Old Norse hrōf roof of a boathouse and perhaps to Old Church Slavic stropŭ roof
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)
: the vaulted upper boundary of the mouth supported largely by the palatine bones and limited anteriorly by the dental lamina and posteriorly by the uvula and upper part of the fauces
2
: a covering structure of any of various parts of the body other than the mouth
Share