noun
1.
a more or less rigid floating platform made of buoyant material or materials: an inflatable rubber raft.
2.
a collection of logs, planks, casks, etc., fastened together for floating on water.
3.
4.
a slab of reinforced concrete providing a footing on yielding soil, usually for a whole building, so that the weight of the soil that would be displaced by the settlement of the building exceeds the weight of the building itself; mat.
verb (used with object)
5.
to transport on a raft.
6.
to form (logs or the like) into a raft.
7.
to travel or cross by raft.
8.
(of an ice floe) to transport (embedded organic or rock debris) from the shore out to sea.
00:10
Raft
is one of our favorite verbs.
So is absquatulate. Does it mean:
| to flee; abscond: |
| to spend time idly; loaf. |
verb (used without object)
9.
to use a raft; go or travel on a raft.
10.
(of an ice floe) to overlap another ice floe.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
noun Informal.
a great quantity; a lot: a raft of trouble.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To raft
Collins
World English Dictionary
raft1 (rɑːft) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a buoyant platform of logs, planks, etc, used as a vessel or moored platform |
| 2. | a thick slab of reinforced concrete laid over soft ground to provide a foundation for a building |
| —vb | |
| 3. | to convey on or travel by raft, or make a raft from |
| [C15: from Old Norse raptr | |
| 'rafting1 | |
| —n | |
| raft2 (rɑːft) | |
| —n | |
| informal a large collection or amount: a raft of old notebooks discovered in a cupboard | |
| [C19: from | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
raft
"floating platform," 1497, originally "rafter" (c.1420), from O.N. raptr "log" (O.N. -pt- pronounced as -ft-), related to M.L.G. rafter, rachter "rafter."
raft
"large collection," 1830, variant of raff "heap, large amount," from M.E. raf (see raffish, riffraff); form and sense associated with raft (1).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia
raft
simplest type of watercraft, made up of logs or planks fastened together to form a floating platform. The earliest were sometimes made of bundles of reeds. Most rafts have been designed simply to float with the current, but they can be equipped with oars or sails or both and can be navigated in the ocean over long distances, as was dramatically demonstrated by Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl in 1947; to test his theory that the Pacific islands might have been settled by people from South America, he sailed a large balsa raft, the Kon-Tiki, from Peru to islands near Tahiti in a voyage of three and a half months. The double-hulled catamarans of India are also seaworthy rafts.
Learn more about raft with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences
He then boarded the last slide raft, and before long climbed onto a rescue boat.
Then he was placed in the raft in an upright position and the raft was lowered into the water so he was basically floating.
But the government seems half-hearted in this structural shift: it has also announced a raft of measures to subsidise exports.
And a raft of genetic diseases have been turning up in a variety of dog breeds.
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