scaffold

noun

scaf·​fold ˈska-fəld 

 also  -ˌfōld

1

a

: a temporary or movable platform for workers (such as bricklayers, painters, or miners) to stand or sit on when working at a height above the floor or ground

b

: a platform on which a criminal is executed (as by hanging or beheading)

c

: a platform at a height above ground or floor level

2

: a supporting framework

Examples of scaffold in a Sentence

The condemned man was led to the scaffold.

Recent Examples on the Web

To release the belief that my ability generates my goodness destabilizes other scaffolds to my security in the world. —Olivia Treynor, Vogue, 1 Nov. 2023

Perhaps the Northern Virginia artist simply likes the contrast between solid metal and insubstantial air, or enjoys the way a skinny vertical scaffold punctuates the immense horizontal sweep of clouds, mist and light. —Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 6 Oct. 2023

Sometimes this process is coupled with a scaffold material to provide texture and structure to the product. —David Abel, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Aug. 2023

Shakespeare’s text, arguably the playwright’s only original story, is a public-domain scaffold on which to build the annual culmination of the Public Works program. —Sara Holdren, Vulture, 30 Aug. 2023

The project’s definitive flatness has freed me from the task of completing a memory, offering instead a scaffold for its unfolding, a way of marking it without risking its betrayal. —Phoebe Chen, New York Times, 25 Apr. 2023

For centuries, even millennia, workers have used ropes and pulleys to lift pipes and planks to assemble scaffolds on the outside of buildings. —Aaron Pressman, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Aug. 2023

What are some places autistic people can turn to for help in constructing their scaffolds? —Pablo Manríquez, The New Republic, 11 July 2023

My team removes the pig cellular material from the scaffold, leaving only the protein structure and blood vessel channels behind. —Doris Taylor, Fortune Well, 11 Aug. 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French scaffald, alteration of Old French eschaafauz, escafaut, alteration of chaafaut, from Vulgar Latin *catafalicum — more at catafalque

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

scaffold

noun

scaf·​fold ˈskaf-əld 

 also  -ˌōld

1

a

: an elevated platform built as a support for workers

b

: a platform on which a criminal is executed

2

: a supporting framework