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
On a windy Saturday afternoon in Paris, the roof over Court Philippe-Chatrier was open ahead of the ladies’ singles final at the 2025 French Open.—Vogue, 7 June 2025 An Associated Press journalist saw at least one home burned when police fired a tear gas canister onto its thatch roof.—Matías Delacroix, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2025
Verb
And in his latest ginormous moment, Verhaeghe roofed a perfect shot for his third series-clinching goal.—Michael Russo, New York Times, 29 May 2025 Tipping, a one-term board member with experience in physical therapy and roofing sales, secured 41.98 percent of the 12,269 total votes to Thomas' 58.02 percent.—Billal Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 May 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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