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rooftree. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
rooftree, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
rooftree in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
rooftree you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From roof + tree.
Pronunciation
Noun
rooftree (plural rooftrees)
- The primary beam of a roof; the ridgepole; hence, the roof itself.
1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. , volume II, London: Edward Moxon, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 111:Howsoever these things be, a long farewell to Locksley Hall! / Now for me the woods may wither, now for me the rooftree fall.
1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 985:there an Annunciation that annihilates time by showing a rooftree throw the shadow of a cross between the Virgin and the angel […]
- (figuratively) A home; a household.
1863, J Sheridan Le Fanu, “In Which the Sun Sets, and the Merry-making is Kept Up by Candle-light in the King’s House, and Lily Receives a Warning Which She Does Not Comprehend”, in The House by the Church-yard. , volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, , →OCLC, page 251:he merry company flocked into the King's House, to dance again and drink tea, and make more love, and play round games, and joke, and sing songs, and eat supper under old Colonel Stafford's snug and kindly roof-tree.
1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Lost Sanjak”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. , →OCLC, page 16:With the idea, presumably, of inducing the doctor's wife to leave her husband's roof-tree for some habitation which would be run at my expense, I had crammed my pockets with a store of banknotes, which represented a good deal of my immediate worldly wealth.
1955, Mildred Clingerman, The Last Prophet:He had forgotten that a prophet is without honor under his own rooftree.