rooftree — English Dictionary

Noun

1. The primary beam of a roof; the ridgepole; hence, the roof itself.

   Examples

   Howsoever these things be, a long farewell to Locksley Hall! / Now for me the woods may wither, now for me the rooftree fall.

   there an Annunciation that annihilates time by showing a rooftree throw the shadow of a cross between the Virgin and the angel […]

2. A home; a household.

   Usage

   • Figurative

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   [T]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.

   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.

   He had forgotten that a prophet is without honor under his own rooftree.

Noun

1. a beam laid along the edge where two sloping sides of a roof meet at the top; provides an attachment for the upper ends of rafters

   Synonyms

   ridgeridgepole

   Broader terms

   beam