roodebok 
bushbuck, Ccphalophus iwtaknxix. it is of a deep 
reddish brown in color, stands about 2 feet high, has large 
ears, and straight, poiuted horns about 3 inches long. It 
Roodebok (Cephatophus natalensit). 
is solitary in its habits, and rarely leaves dense forests ex- 
cept in the evening or during rainy weather. 
rood-free (rod'fre), a. Exempt from punish- 
ment. [Rare.] Imp. Diet. 
roodhout (rod'hout), n. [D., < rood, red (= E. 
red), + hout, wood (= E. holt).] The Cape red- 
wood. See Ochna. 
rood-loft (rod'loft), n. [< ME. rode lofte; < 
rood + loft.] A gallery in a church where the 
rood and its appendages were placed. This loft 
or gallery was commonly situated between the nave and 
5221 
Eoodmas-dayt, H. Holy-rood day. Also Jionil- 
(luy (Ktxle-iluy), Rudmas-day. 
rood-screen (rod'skren), . A screen or orna- 
mental partition separating the choir of a 
church from the nave, and (properly) support- 
ing the rood or crucifix. See cuts under rood- 
loft and cathedral. 
The western limit of the quire (in Salisbury Cathedral] 
was shut in by the rood-screen, ... a solid erection of 
stone. G. Scott, Hist. Eng. Church Architecture, p. 143. 
rood-spire (rod'splr), n. Same as rood-steeple. 
rood-steeple (rod'ste"pl), n. A steeple or spire 
built over the entrance to the chancel, espe- 
cially at the crossing of a cruciform church. 
See cut in preceding column. 
rood-tower (rod'tou"er), n. A tower occupy- 
ing the position described under rood-steeple. 
rood-treet (rOd'tre), n. [< ME. roodetre, rode- 
tre ; < rood 4- tree.] The cross. 
I leue and trust in Christes frit h, 
Whiche died vpon the mode tre. 
Gower, Conf. Amant., ii. 
rpody (ro'di), a. [Appar. avar. of rooty."] Rank 
ingrowth; coarse; luxuriant. [Prov. Eng.] 
roof 1 (rof ), n. [< ME rof, < AS. hrof, a roof, = 
OPries. hrof, a roof, = OD. roef, a roof, ceiling, 
shelter, cover, D. roef, a cabin, a wooden cover, 
= MLG. rof, LG. rof, a roof, = Icel. hrof, a shed 
under which ships are kept or built. Cf. Icel. 
rdf, also rdfr, mod. rsefr, a roof; Russ. krovu, a 
roof; perhaps akin to Gr. KpvTmiv, hide (see 
TKPO-] ! The external upper covering of a 
house or other building. Roofs are distinguished 
(1) by the materials of 
which they are main- 
ly formed, as thatch, 
stone, wood, slate, tile, 
iron, etc., and (2) by 
their form and mode 
of construction, in 
great variety, as shed, Shed Roof. Gable Roof, 
curb, hip, gable, pa- 
vilion, ogee, and flat roofs. The span of a roof is the width 
between the supports ; the rise is the height of the ridge 
of the highest part above the level of the supports ; the 
pitch is the slope or angle at 
which it is inclined. In car- 
pentry, roof signifies the tim- 
ber framework by which the 
roofing or covering materials 
of the building are support- 
ed. This consists in general 
of the principal rafters, the 
Conical Roof. Ogee Roof. purlins, and the common 
rafters. The principal raf- 
ters, or principals, as they are commonly termed, are 
placed so as to span the building at intervals usually of 
10 or 12 feet ; the purlins lie horizontally upon these, and 
sustain the common rafters, which carry the covering 
of the roof. The accompanying figure shows one of 
Rood-loft (now destroyed) of the Abbey of St Denis, igth century. 
(From Viollet le Due's " Diet, de PArchitecture.") 
the chancel, or over the rood- screen. The front of the loft, 
like the screen below, was usually richly ornamented with 
tracery and carvings, either in wood or in stone. It was 
often approached by a small staircase in the wall of the 
building. This feature does not appear in modern churches, 
and has now been removed from a large proportion of the 
medieval churches. The rood-loft originated from a com- 
bination of the rood beam and ambo. The center was 
used as ambo (jube), and the epistle and gospel were read 
and announcements made from it It was placed over 
the entrance to the choir, so that both could stand in the 
middle line (longitudinal axis) of the church, and the ap- 
proach to it was made from the side of the church along 
a broadened rood-beam or loft crowning the rood-screen. 
See also diagram under cathedral. 
And then to zee the rood-loft 
Zo bravely zet with zaints. 
Plain Truth and Blind Ignorance (Percy's Reliques, p. 275). 
The priest formerly stood in the rood-loft to read the 
Gospel and Epistle, and occasionally to preach the ser- 
mon at High Mass. F. O. Lee, Gloss. Eccles. Terms. 
Rood-steeple. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, from the southeast. 
King-post Roof. 
A, king-post; B, tie-beam; c, c, struts or braces; D, D, purlins; 
F, K. principal rafters ; F, F, common rafters; G, G, wall-plates; H, 
ridge-pole. 
the two varieties of principals which are in common 
use (the king-post principal), with the purlins and com- 
mon rafters in position. (For a diagram of the second, the 
queen-post principal, see gueen-post.) Each of these modes 
of framing constitutes a truss. Sometimes, when the width 
of the building is not great, common rafters are used alone 
to support the roof. They are in that case joined together 
in pairs, nailed where they meet at the top, and connected 
by means of a tie at the bottom. They are then termed 
couples, a pair forming a couple-cloie. See also cuts under 
hammer-beam, hip-roof, jerkin-head, Sf-roof, pendent, and 
pendentive. 
Goodly buildings left without a roof 
Soon fall to ruin. ShtOc., Pericles, ii. 4. 36. 
2. Anything which in form or position corre- 
sponds to or resembles the covering of a house, 
as the arch or top of a furnace or oven, the top 
of a carriage or coach or car, an arch or the in- 
terior of a vault, the ceiling of a room, etc. ; 
hence, a canopy or the like. 
Ffor tristith, als trewly as tyllinge us helpeth, 
That iche rewme vndir roffot the reyne-bowe 
Sholde stable and stonde be these thre degres. 
Richard the Redeless, ill. 248. 
This brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof 
fretted with golden fire. Shak., Hamlet, ii. 2. 313. 
Under the shady roof 
Of branching elm star-proof. 
Milton, Arcades, 1. 89. 
3. A house. 
My dwelling, sir? 
"Tis a poor yeoman's roof, scarce a league off. 
Fletcher and Rmtley, Maid in the Mill, ii. 2. 
roof-guard 
4. The upper part of the mouth; the hard 
palate. 
Swearing till my very roof was dry. 
Shak., M. ofV.,iii.2.2os. 
5. Figuratively, the loftiest part. 
Why should we only toil, the roof and crown of things? 
Tennyson, Lotos- Eaters, Choric Song. 
6. In geol,, the overlying stratum. 7. In min- 
ing, the top of any subterranean excavation: 
little used except in coal-mining False roof in 
arch., the ceiling of an upper room or garret where it is 
shaped like a roof : but a space is, in fact, left between the 
ceiling and the rafters of the roof proper. Flat roof. 
(a) A roof the upper surface of which is horizontal. Such 
roofs are frequent in the East, where they are usually 
thickly covered with clay or mortar. (6) A roof but slightly 
inclined for the discharge of water. Roofs of this form are 
common in city buildings, especially in the United States, 
and are usually covered with sheet-metal. French roof, 
a form of roof with almost vertical sides, sometimes con- 
cave or even convex, and the top usually flat or sloping 
toward the rear. The sides are commonly pierced with dor- 
mer or other windows. This form of roof spread through- 
French Roof. Pavilion of Women's Hospital, New York City. 
out the United States about 1870 and in succeeding years. 
It has its name from its fancied resemblance to the French 
Mansard roof its object, like that roof, being to gain 
space in the topmost story. Imperial roof. See im- 
perial dome, under imperial. Mansard roof, a form 
of curb-roof the lower slope of which approaches the verti- 
cal, while the upper slope is variable, but much more near- 
ly flat than in the typical curb-roof. The lower section 
of the roof is pierced with windows. A roof of this type 
permits the establishment of an upper story, but little in- 
ferior to the others, in place of an ordinary garret. It was 
Mansard Roof. Chateau of Maisons Laffirte, France, by Francois 
Mansart. 
first used in the Louvre by Pierre Lescot, about 1550, but 
has its name from Francois Mansart (1598-1662), a French 
architect (uncle of the better-known Jules Hardouin Man- 
sart, the architect of Versailles and of the dome of the 
Invalides), who brought these roofs into a vogue which 
they have since retained in France. Ogee roof. See ogee. 
Packsaddle-roof, saddle-back roof. Same as sad- 
dle^roof. Pavilion roof. See pavilion. Pitch Of a 
roof. See pt'teAi. Raised roof, in car-building, a car- 
roof the middle part of which is raised to form a clear- 
story. Roof of the mouth, the hard palate ; the upper 
wall of the mouth, as far as the bone extends. Compare 
def. 4. Square roof, a roof in which the principal rafters 
meet at a right angle. (See also curb-roof, gambrel-roof, 
hip-roof.) 
roof 1 (rof), v. t. [< roof*-, .] 1. To cover with 
a roof, in any sense of that word. 
I have not, indeed, seen the remains of any ancient 
Roman buildings that have not been roofed with either 
vaults or arches. 
Addison, Remarks on Italy (Works, ed. Bohn, I. 444). 
Every winter in the Arctic regions the sea freezes, 
roofing itself with ice of enormous thickness and vast ex- 
tent. Tyndatt, Forms of Water, p. 183. 
2. To inclose in a house ; shelter. 
Here had we now our country's honour roofd, 
Were the graced person of our fianquo present. 
Shak., Macbeth, Ui. 4. 40. 
3. To arch or form like a roof. [Rare.] 
And enter'd soon the shade 
High roofd, and walks beneath, and alleys brown. 
Milton, P. R., ii. 293. 
roof 2 t. An obsolete preterit of rive 1 . 
roof-cell (ro'f'sel), . A nerve-cell found in the 
roof -nucleus. 
roofer (ro'fer), n. One who roofs, or makes and 
repairs roofs. 
roof-gradation (rof'gra-da"shon), H. In salt- 
manuf., the system of utilizing the roofs of the 
large tanks containing the brine as evaporat- 
ing-surfaces, by causing the contents of the 
tanks to flow m a thin and constant stream 
over the roofs. 
roof-guard (rof'gard), H. A board or an orna- 
mental edging of ironwork placed just above 
