Definition of "roof" []

• The exterior surface and its supporting structures on the top of a building. (noun)
• The upper exterior surface of a dwelling as a symbol of the home itself: three generations living under one roof. (noun)
• The top covering of something: the roof of a car. (noun)
• The upper surface of an anatomical structure, especially one having a vaulted inner structure: the roof of the mouth. (noun)
• The highest point or limit; the summit or ceiling: A roof on prices is needed to keep our customers happy. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""What comes from the roof," may not be very intelligible; still _roof_ is the word in the original edition of Gibbon, where it corresponds to _toit_ in"
• "The main body of the house is 14 feet high to the plates; the lower rooms are 9 feet high; the roof has a pitch of 35° from a horizontal line, giving partially-upright chambers in the main building, and _roof_ lodging rooms in the rear."
• "Has it ever occurred to you to ask the question, what effect the cottage would have upon your feelings if it had _no roof_? no visible roof, I mean; -- if instead of the thatched slope, in which the little upper windows are buried deep, as in a nest of straw -- or the rough shelter of its mountain shales -- or warm coloring of russet tiles -- there were nothing but a flat leaden top to it, making it look like a large packing-case with windows in it?"