English

Alternative forms

• roof-tree

Noun

rooftree ‎(plural rooftrees)

1. The primary beam of a roof, ridgepole; hence, the roof. [from 14th c.]
   • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate 2006, p. 985:

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

   • Now for me the woods may wither, now for me the rooftree fall. — Tennyson.

2. (figuratively) A home; household.
   • 1910, ‘Saki’, "The Lost Sanjak", Reginald in Russia:

     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.

   • The correct costume had to be hand-made by each individual or 'rooftree' (family group) ... — The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift