scaffold Hear it!

scaffold definition

scaf·fold (skaf′əld, -ōld′)

noun

  1. a temporary wooden or metal framework for supporting workmen and materials during the erecting, repairing, or painting of a building, etc.
  2. a raised platform on which criminals are executed, as by hanging
  3. a temporary wooden stage or platform, as that on which medieval plays were presented
  4. any raised framework

Etymology: ME scafald < OFr escafalt < es- (L ex-, out) + VL *catafalicum: see catafalque

transitive verb

to furnish or support with, or put on, a scaffold

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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