Definition of "raft"

raft¹

/ɹɑːft/

noun
plural rafts
1. A flat-bottomed craft able to float and drift on water, used for transport or as a waterborne platform.
2. (by extension) Any flattish thing, usually wooden, used in a similar fashion.
  Quotations
  When George Stephenson built the Liverpool & Manchester Railway he encountered the same difficulty at Chat Moss and solved the problem by constructing a kind of raft made of brushwood that more or less floated on the surface of the bog. On this he placed as much firm soil as his raft could carry, when the operation was repeated, the first raft being thereby sunk with its load of solid earth, which was not displaced.
  1934 February, G. W. Tripp, “How Nature Harasses the Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 79
  Even though in a way you let him freeze to death in the water, because the way I see it...I agree. Y'know, I think he actually could have fitted on that bit of door.There was plenty of room on the raft.I know. I know, I know.
  2016 February 2, Kate Winslet et al., Jimmy Kimmel Live!‎
3. A thick crowd of seabirds or sea mammals, particularly a group of penguins when in the water.
  Quotations
  Pelicans, bills stuck forward, would gather in small rafts to move along in comical formation, before diving in unison […]
  2010, John Roome, A Persistent Passage, page 140
4. (US) A collection of logs, fallen trees, etc. which obstructs navigation in a river.
5. (US, slang, when ordering food) A slice of toast.
6. A square array of sensors forming part of a large telescope.
7. (cooking) A mass of congealed solids that forms on a consommé because of the protein in the egg white.
verb
third-person singular simple present rafts, present participle rafting, simple past and past participle rafted
1. (transitive) To convey on a raft.
2. (transitive) To make into a raft.
3. (intransitive) To travel by raft.
4. (graphical user interface) To dock (toolbars, etc.) so that they share horizontal or vertical space.
  Quotations
  The ToolStripContainer provides built-in rafting and docking of ToolStrip, MenuStrip, and StatusStrip controls.
  2007, Dinesh Maidasani, Straight to the Point - Visual Basic 2005, page 11

raft²

/ɹɑːft/

noun
plural rafts
1. A large (but unspecified) number, a lot.
  Quotations
  Pomeroy asked me a raft of factual-type questions (how old were you when you began menstruating? did you ever see your parents having intercourse? did you have many friends in high school? how was your relationship with your father?). It seemed he had a written questionnaire & checked off answers as I have them.
  1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
  Among those arrested was the grand master himself, Jacques de Molay, who found himself facing a raft of charges based on the specious evidence of former knights [...].
  2007, Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon, Blue Bridge, published 2008, page 31
  The goals and entertainment dried up after the break as Wales made a raft of substitutions but, with more meaningful challenges to come, a capacity crowd at the Stok Racecourse appreciated the bigger picture with Croatia on the horizon.
  2023 October 11, Dafydd Pritchard, “Wales 4-0 Gibraltar”, in BBC Sport‎

raft³

/ɹɑːft/

verb
1. (archaic) simple past and past participle of reave
  Quotations
  Colin Clout raft me of his brother
  1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “August. Aegloga Octaua.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […]; reprinted as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, The Shepheardes Calender […], London: John C. Nimmo, […], 1890,

Definition of "raft"

raft1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

raft2

noun

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raft3

verb

Quotations

raft¹

raft²

raft³