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
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Noun
Authorities said Robinson, perched atop a roof.—Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 14 Sep. 2025 That’s why architect Catherine Sloan chose wood lap siding (swathed in Benjamin Moore’s Swiss Coffee, OC-45), a cedar-shingle roof, and wood windows.—Mary Shannon Wells, Southern Living, 14 Sep. 2025
Verb
The convenient kit comes with floor and roofing materials, plus nails, screws, handles, door locks, and fixings, which means less time wasted running to the hardware store.—Alicia Geigel, Southern Living, 14 Sep. 2025 His boss, roofing contractor Clayton Baker, told WXXI that Chino has lived in the United States for 25 years, has work authorization, and is expecting a child.—Martha McHardy, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 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
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