), . [< ME. "rofing, roving ; < 
1. The act of covering with 
roof-guard 
the eaves of a roof to prevent snow from slid- 
ing off. 
roofing (rd'finj; 
roof 1 + -ing 1 .} 
a roof. 2. The materials of which a roof is 
composed, or materials for a roof. 3. The roof 
itself; hence, shelter. 
Lete hem [walls] drie cr thou thl bemes bent, 
Or rovynff sette uppon, lest all be shent 
For lacke of crafte. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. 1. S.), p. 15. 
Which forme of roofing [flat] is generally used In all 
those Italian Cities. Coryat, Crudities, I. 204. 
Fit roofing gave. Southey. (Imp. Diet.) 
4. The ridge-cap of a thatched roof. Halli- 
u-ell. [Prov. Eng.] Bay of roofing. See ftoj/a. 
Carcass-roofing. See carcass. Common roofing, a 
roof-frame composed only of common rafters, with no prin- 
cipals. Roofing-felt. See/eit'. Roofing-paper. See 
paper. 
roofless (rof'les), a. [< roof 1 + -lens.] 1. Hav- 
ing no roof : as, a roofless house. 
I, who lived 
Beneath the wings of angels yesterday, 
Wander to-day beneath the roofless world. 
Mrs. Browning, Drama of Exile. 
The great majority of the houses |in SebastopolJ were 
D. M. Wallace, Russia, 
still roofless and in ruins. 
2. Having no house or home ; unsheltered. 
rooflet (rof'let), n. [< roo/1 + -let.'] A small 
roof or covering. 
roof-like (rof'lik), a. Like a roof. 
roof-nucleus (rof'nu*kle-us), n. The nucleus 
fastigii in the white matter of the cerebellum 
which forms the roof of the fourth ventricle. 
It lies close to the middle line. 
roof-plate (rof 'plat), n. A wall-plate which 
receives the lower ends of the rafters of a 
roof. 
roof-rat (rof'rat), H. A white-bellied variety 
of the black rat, specifically called Mus tec- 
tomm. See black rat, under rat 1 . 
roof-shaped (rof'shapt), In entom., shaped 
like a gable-roof; having two slanting surfaces 
meeting in a ridge. 
roof-staging (rof sta"jiug), n. A scaffold used 
in working on an inclined roof. It holds fast 
to the roof automatically by means of barbed 
rods and claw-plates. 
roof-stay (rof'sta), n. In boilers of the loco- 
motive type, one of the stays which bind the 
arch or roof of the boiler to the crown-sheet 
of the fire-box, for the support of the crown- 
sheet against internal pressure. 
roof-tree (rof'tre), . [< ME. roof-tree, ruff- 
tree; < roo/ 1 + tree.'] 1. The beam at the ridge 
of a roof ; the ridge-pole. 
Her head hat the roof-tree o' the house. 
King Henry (Child's Ballads, I. 148). 
Hence 2. The roof itself. 
Phil blessed his stars that he had not assaulted his 
father's guest then and there, under his own roof -tree. 
Thackeray, Philip, x. 
To your roof-tree, In Scotland, a toast expressive of a 
wish for prosperity to one's family, because the roof -tree 
covers the house and all in it. 
roof-truss (rof'trus), . In carp., the frame- 
work of a roof, consisting of thrust- and tie- 
pieces. E. H. Knight. See cuts under roof 
and pendent. 
roof-Winged (rof'wingd), . In entom., 
terous: as a descriptive epithet, applie< 
many insects which hold their wings in the 
shape of a roof when at rest. See Stegoptera. 
roofy (ro'fi), a. [<roo/i + -yi.] Having a roof. 
Whether to roofy houses they repair, 
Or sun themselves abroad in open ah* 
Dryden, tr. of Virgil's Georgics, iii. 634. 
rook 1 (ruk), n. [< ME. rook, rok, roc, < AS. hroc 
= MD. roeck, D. roek = MLG. rok, roke, LG. rok, 
roek = OHG. hriwh, MHG. ruoch (cf . G. ruchert, 
a jackdaw) = Icel. hrokr = Sw. r&ka = Dan. 
raage = Ir. Gael, rocas, a rook ; cf . roofci, i\ , Gael, 
roc, croak, Goth, hrukjan, crow as a cock, Skt. 
5222 
y/ Artie, cry out : of imitative origin ; cf. croak, 
crow 1 , crow 2 , etc.] 1. A kind of crow, Cortun 
frugilcgus, abundant in Europe. It is entirely 
black, with the parts about the base of the bill more or less 
bare of feathers in the adult The size is nearly or about 
that of the common crow ; it is thus much smaller than 
the raven, and larger than the jackdaw. It is of a grega- 
rious and sociable disposition, preferring to nest in rook- 
eries about buildings, and feeding on insects and grain. 
The halle was al ful ywis 
Of hem that writen olde gestcs, 
As ben on trees rokes nestes. 
Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 1516. 
lie . . . saw the tops of the great elms, and the rooks 
circling about, and cawing remonstrances. 
T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, L 7. 
2. The ruddy duck, Erismatura rwbida. [Local, 
U. S.] 3. A cheat; a trickster or swindler; 
one who practises the "plucking of pigeons." 
See pigeon, 2. 
Your city blades are cunning rookes, 
How rarely you collogue him ! 
Songs of the London Prentices, p. 9L (llalli u, It . ; 
The Butcherly execution of Tormentors, Rooks, and 
Rakeshames sold to lucre. 
Milton, Reformation in Eng., ii. 
It. A simpleton; agull; one liable to be cheated. 
An arrant rook, by this light a capable cheating-stock ; 
a man may carry him up and down by the ears like a pip- 
kin. Chapman, May-Day, iii. 2. 
What ! shall I have my son a Stager now ? . . . a Gull, 
a Kuvke, . . . to make suppers, and bee laughed at? 
/>'. Jonson, PoeUster, t 1. 
5. [Cf. eroK> 2 , 6, crowbar.'] A crowbar. Halli- 
n-ell. [Prov. Eng.] 
rook 1 (ruk), r. [< rook 1 , n.] 1, intrans. 1. To 
caw or croak as a crow or raven. [Scotch.] 
2. To cheat; defraud. 
A band of rooking Officials, with cloke bagges full of 
Citations and Processes, to be serv'd by a corporeity of 
griflonlike Promooters and Apparitors. 
Milton, Reformation in Eng., i. 
II. trans. To cheat ; defraud by cheating. 
He was much rooked by gamesters, and fell acquainted 
with that unsanctified crew to his mine. 
Aubrey, Lives, Sir J. Denham. 
His hand having been transfixed to a table, only because 
It innocently concealed a card, with which he merely meant 
to "rook the pigeon" he was then playing against 
Jon Bee, Essay on Samuel Foote. 
rook 2 (riik), n. [< ME. rook, roke, rok = MHG. 
roch, G. roche, < OF. (and F. ) roc = Pr. roc = Sp. 
Pg. rogue = It. rocco (ML. roots) = Ar. Hind. 
rukh, < Pers. rokh, the rook or tower at chess: 
said to have meant 'warrior, hero'; cf. Pers. 
rukh, a hero, knight errant (also a rhinoceros, 
and a roc, a fabulous bird : see roc 1 ).] In chess, 
one of the four pieces placed on the corner 
squares of the board; a castle. The rook may 
move along the ranks or the files the whole extent of the 
board unless impeded by some other piece. See cltetsi. 
After chec for the roke ware fore the mate, 
For gif the fondment be false, the werke most nede falle. 
MS. Douce 302, f. 4. (Ilallimll.) 
rook 3 (ruk), v. Same as rcA -1 . 
rookerH (ruk'er), n. [< rook^ + -ri.] A 
sharper; a cheat; a swindler. 
Hookers and sharpers work their several ends upon such 
as they make a prey of. 
Kennet, tr. of Erasmus's Praise of Folly, p. 76. (Davies.) 
rooker 2 (ruk'er), n. [< "rook, rcfc, + -eri.] 
An L-shaped implement used by bakers to with- 
draw ashes from the oven. 
rookery (ruk'er-i), n. ; pi. rookeries (-iz). [< 
rook 1 + -ery.] 1. A place where rooks con- 
gregate to breed. 
Its gray front stood out well from the background of a 
rookery, whose cawing tenants were now on the wing. 
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, xi. 
2. The rooks that breed in a rookery, collec- 
tively. 
The many-winter'd crow that leads the clanging rookery 
home. Tennyson, Locksley Hall. 
3. A place where birds or other animals resort 
in great numbers to breed, (o) The resort of vari- 
ous sea-birds, as auks, murres, guillemots, puffins, pet- 
rels, penguins, and cormorants, generally a rocky sea- 
coast or island, (b) The breeding-grounds of the fur-seal 
and other pinnipeds. 
Millions of live seals to be seen hauled up on the rook- 
eries [in the Pribylof Islands]. 
Arc. Cruise of the Coririn (1881), p. 18. 
4. A cluster of mean tenements inhabited by 
people of the lowest class ; a resort of thieves, 
tramps, ruffians, and the like. 
All that remained, in the autumn of 1849, of this infa- 
mous Ronkery (so called as a place of resort for sharpers 
and quarrelsome people) was included and condensed in 
ninety-five wretched houses in Church-lane and Carrier- 
street. Murray, London as it is (1860), p. 282. (Hoppe.) 
The misery, the disease, the mortality in rookeries, made 
continually worse by artificial impediments to the increase 
of fourth-rate houses. H. Spencer, Man vs. State, p. 54. 
room 
6. A brothel. [Slang.] 6. A disturbance ; a 
row. [Prov. Eng.] 
rookie (ro'kl), r. i. ; pret. and pp. rookled, ppr. 
rookling. [Irreg. var. of rootle. ] To rummage 
about; poke about with the nose, like a pig; 
root. [Prov. Eng.] 
What '11 they say to me if I go a routing and rookliny in 
their drains, like an old sow by the wayside ? 
Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xiv. 
rookler (rok'ler), n. [< rookie + -ei' 1 .] One 
who or that which goes rookling or rooting 
about; a pig. [Prov. Eng.] 
High-withered, furry, grizzled, game-flavoured little 
rooklers, whereof many a sounder still grunted about 
Swinley down. Kingsley, Westward Ho, vlii. 
rooky 1 (ruk'i), a. [< rooA' 1 + -y 1 .] Abounding 
in rooks ; inhabited by rooks : as, a rooky tree. 
Light thickens ; and the crow 
Makes wing to the rooky wood. 
Shak., Macbeth, ill. 2. 61. 
[The above quotation is by some commentators held to 
bear the meaning of rooky?.] 
rooky 2 (ruk'i), a. Same as roky. Srockett. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
rool (rSl), r. t. and i. [Perhaps a contr. of 
ruffle^.'] To ruffle; rumple; pucker. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
Whenever the balsam begins to rool or cause hitching 
of the specimen, add a few drops of the soap solution. 
Jour. Roy. Micros. Soc., 2d ser., VI. i. 
room 1 ! (rom), a. [Early mod. E. "roum, "roam ; 
< ME. roum, rom, rum, < AS. rum = OFries. rum 
= D. ruim = MLG. rum = OHG. rumi, MHG. 
runic, rum (also gerume, gerum, G. geraum) = 
Icel. rumr = Goth, rftms, spacious, wide; per- 
haps akin to L. rus (rur-), open country (see 
rural), OBulg. rarinu = Serv. ravan = Bohem. 
rovnj = Pol. rowny = Buss, rornuif, plain, even, 
Pol. roteniii = Russ. raviina, a plain, etc., Zend 
ravanh, wide, free, open, ravan, a plain.] Wide ; 
spacious; roomy. 
Ye konne by argumentez make a place 
A myle brood of twenty foot of space, 
Lat se now if this place may sufflse, 
Or make it rowm [var. rom] with speche as is your glse. 
Chaucer, Reeve's Tale, 1. 200. 
Ther was no rammer herberwe in the place. 
Chaucer, Reeve's Tale, 1. 225. 
A renke in a rownde cloke, with right rowmme clothes. 
Morte Arthure (E. E. T. S.), L 8471. 
Jhesu that made the pianettes vij, 
And all the worlde undurhevyn, 
And made thys worlde wyde and rome. 
MS. Cantab, ft. ii. 38, f. 106. (Halliwell.) 
room 1 (rom), arff. [< ME. rome, < AS. rume 
(= D. ruim), wide, far, < rfim, wide : see room 1 , 
a.] Far ; at a distance ; wide, in space or 
extent; in nautical use, off from the wind. 
[Obsolete except in nautical use.] 
The geaunt was wonder strong, 
Rome thretti fote long. 
Beves of Hamtoun, 1. 1880. 
Rowse, quoth the ship against the rocks ; roomer cry I 
in the cocke ; my Lord wept for the company, I laught to 
comfort him. Tragedy of Ho/man (1631). (Halliwell.) 
To go, steer, put. or bear roomer, to go ofl with the 
wind free ; sail wide. 
Yet did the master by all meanes assay 
To steare out roomer, or to keepe aloofe. 
Sir J. Harington, tr. of Orlando Furioso (1591), p. 343. 
((Hallm-ell.) 
I have (as your Highnesse sees) past already the Godwins 
[Bishop Godwin], if I can as well passe over this Edwin 
Sands [another bishop], I will goe roomer of Greenwiche 
rocke. 
Sir J. Harini/ton, Addition to the Catalogue of Bishops 
[(Nugffi Ant, II. 233). 
We thought it best to returne vnto the harbor which we 
had found before, and so we bare roomer with the same. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, I. 236. 
The wind veringmore Northerly, we were forced to put 
roomer with the coast of England againe. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, L 310. 
room 1 (r<5tn), [Early mod. E. also rome, roum, 
rowm; < ME. roum, roicm, rum, rom, < AS. rum, 
room, = OS. rum = D. ri = MLG. LG. ntm 
= OHG. rumi, rumin, rum, run, MHG. rum, run. 
G. raum, space, room, = Icel. rum = Sw. Dau. 
)) = Goth, ruim, space; from the adj.: see 
room 1 , a. Cf. Pol., Sorbian, and Little Euss. 
rum, space, < OHG. rum. Hence roomy, riim- 
miiye, etc.] 1. Space; compass; extent of 
space, great or small : as, here is room enough 
for an army. 
So he rid hym a romne in a rad hast. 
Of tlio tulkes. with tene. that hym take wold. 
Destrtiction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 6478. 
And. as their wealth increaseth, so inclose 
Innnite riches in a little room. 
Marlowe, Jew of Malta, i. 1. 
Thou . . . hast not shut me up into the hand of the 
enemy ; thou hast set my feet in a large room. Ps. xxxi. 8. 
