raft

Etymology 1

Late Middle English, of North Germanic origin, from West Old Norse raptr, from Proto-Germanic *raf-tra-, from Proto-Indo-European *rap-tro-, from *rep- (“stake, beam”). See also Norwegian raft (“beam, rafter”), Danish raft (“thin pole”). Compare also Albanian trap (“raft, ferry”).

noun

1. A flat-bottomed craft able to float and drift on water, used for transport or as a waterborne platform.
   An inflatable raft
2. log raft.
3. (by extension) Any flattish thing, usually wooden, used in a similar fashion.
   When George Stephenson built the Liverpool & Manchester Railway he encountered the same difficulty at Chat Moss and solved the problem by constructing a kind of raft made of brushwood that more or less floated on the surface of the bog. On this he placed as much firm soil as his raft could carry, when the operation was repeated, the first raft being thereby sunk with its load of solid earth, which was not displaced. 1934 February, G. W. Tripp, “How Nature Harasses the Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 79
   Even though in a way you let him freeze to death in the water, because the way I see it... I agree. Y'know, I think he actually could have fitted on that bit of door. There was plenty of room on the raft. I know. I know, I know. February 2 2016, Kate Winslet et al., Jimmy Kimmel Live!
4. A thick crowd of seabirds or sea mammals, particularly a group of penguins when in the water.
   Pelicans, bills stuck forward, would gather in small rafts to move along in comical formation, before diving in unison […] 2010, John Roome, A Persistent Passage, page 140
5. (US) A collection of logs, fallen trees, etc. which obstructs navigation in a river.
6. (US, slang, when ordering food) A slice of toast.
7. A square array of sensors forming part of a large telescope.
8. (cooking) A mass of congealed solids that forms on a consommé because of the protein in the egg white.

verb

1. (transitive) To convey on a raft.
2. (transitive) To make into a raft.
3. (intransitive) To travel by raft.
4. (graphical user interface) To dock (toolbars, etc.) so that they share horizontal or vertical space.
   The ToolStripContainer provides built-in rafting and docking of ToolStrip, MenuStrip, and StatusStrip controls. 2007, Dinesh Maidasani, Straight to the Point - Visual Basic 2005, page 11

Etymology 2

Alteration of raff.

noun

1. A large (but unspecified) number, a lot.
   1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure Pomeroy asked me a raft of factual-type questions (how old were you when you began menstruating? did you ever see your parents having intercourse? did you have many friends in high school? how was your relationship with your father?). It seemed he had a written questionnaire & checked off answers as I have them.
   Among those arrested was the grand master himself, Jacques de Molay, who found himself facing a raft of charges based on the specious evidence of former knights …. 2007, Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon, Blue Bridge, published 2008, page 31

Etymology 3

verb

1. (archaic) simple past and past participle of reave