different between rafter vs straw

English

Etymology 1

From Old English ræfter, of Germanic origin, related to the origin of raft.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????ft?(?)/
• (Canada, US) IPA^(key): /??æft??/

Noun

rafter (plural rafters)

1. One of a series of sloped beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.

   • […] the pigeons fluttered up to the rafters,

2. A flock of turkeys.

Translations

Verb

rafter (third-person singular simple present rafters, present participle raftering, simple past and past participle raftered)

1. (transitive) To make (timber, etc.) into rafters.
2. (transitive) To furnish (a building) with rafters.
3. (Britain, agriculture) To plough so as to turn the grass side of each furrow upon an unploughed ridge; to ridge.

References

Etymology 2

raft +? -er

Noun

rafter (plural rafters)

1. A raftsman.

Anagrams

• Frater, farter, frater

English

Etymology

From Middle English straw, from Old English str?aw, from Proto-West Germanic *strau, from Proto-Germanic *straw? (“that which is strewn”). Cognate with Dutch stro, Walloon strin, German Stroh, Norwegian and Swedish strå, Albanian shtrohë (“kennel”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /st???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /st??/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /st??/

Noun

straw (countable and uncountable, plural straws)

1. (countable) A dried stalk of a cereal plant.
2. (uncountable) Such dried stalks considered collectively.
3. (countable) A drinking straw.
4. A pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.

5. (figuratively) Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing.
   • 1889, Robin Hood and the Tanner, Francis James Child (editor), The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume 3, page 138:

     ‘For thy sword and thy bow I care not a straw,

     Nor all thine arrows to boot;

     If I get a knop upon thy bare scop,

     Thou canst as well shite as shoote.’

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers:

     He also decided, which was more to his purpose, that Eleanor did not care a straw for him, and that very probably she did care a straw for his rival.

   • 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

     To be deeply interested in the accidents of our existence, to enjoy keenly the mixed texture of human experience, rather leads a man to disregard precautions, and risk his neck against a straw.

Derived terms

• strawhead
• strawberry

Translations

Adjective

straw (not comparable)

1. Made of straw.

   Synonym: strawen

2. Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.
3. (figuratively) Imaginary, but presented as real.

Translations

Derived terms

See also

Verb

straw (third-person singular simple present straws, present participle strawing, simple past and past participle strawed)

1. To lay straw around plants to protect them from frost.
2. (obsolete, slang) To sell straws on the streets in order to cover the giving to the purchaser of things usually banned, such as pornography.

Anagrams

• Swart, swart, warts

Middle English

Alternative forms

• strau, strawe, straugh, strau?, strawwe, stre, stree, stra, straa, strey, streaw, strew, streuw

Etymology

From Old English str?aw, from Proto-Germanic *straw?. Some forms are influenced by Old Norse strá.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /strau?/, /stre?/
• (Northern ME) IPA^(key): /str??/

Noun

straw (plural strawes or stren)

1. The remaining plant material after cultivation; halm, straw.
2. An individual piece or section of straw.
3. (figuratively) Anything slight or worthless; the least possible thing.
4. (rare) A measure of weight for candlewax.

Related terms

• strawbery
• strawen

Descendants

• English: straw
• Scots: strae
• Yola: stre, strew

References

• “strau, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-19.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /straf/

Verb

straw

1. second-person singular imperative of strawi?

Noun

straw f

1. genitive plural of strawa

Further reading

• straw in Polish dictionaries at PWN