DCHP-1 Online

raft ((v.))

• 1 v. travel along or cross (a river) by means of a raft.

  • 1689  (1929)  This morning tryed to gett over y^e mouth of it but could not so . . . went up y^e river to Raft our selves over.
  • 1873  (1888)  . . . rapid and dangerous rivers have been rafted. . . .
  • 1900  "I'll send word down for a couple of the boys to outfit and pole a boat up the Yukon. We'll cross the divide and raft down the Indian River to meet them."

• 2a v. drive (logs, timber, etc.) by means of a raft (def. 1 or 2); transport in the form of a raft by water.

  See also: raft ((n.)) (def. 1 or 2)  rafting (def. 1)  

  • 1743  (1949)  For our firing we . . . Rafted home . . . two piles [of wood] of 160 yds. Curcumference. . . .
  • 1818  One of the men . . . had been with a company, cutting lumber in Upper Canada, and rafting it down to Quebec.
  • 1829  Let them seek up the Black River to the Manicogan Lake, and raft down into English Bay.
  • 1874  The timber intended to be rafted down to Quebec, is taken from the booms, say in Toronto bay, and built up in drams.
  • 1965  [Caption] This [group of logs] is rafted to B.C. Forest Products pulp mill at Crofton, V.I

• 2b v. engage in rafting (def. 1).

  See also: rafting (def. 1)  

  • 1829  . . . about a year ago, as they were rafting down the lake, one of their hands, a Canadian, went ashore to shoot pigeons. . . .

• 2c v. fashion into a raft (def. 2).

  See also: raft ((n.)) (def. 2)  rafting up  raft up  

  • 1846  (1957)  To insure the proper working of the slides, I propose . . . that the person in charge of the slides be instructed . . . to allow no timber to pass out of that Boom except in Cribs properly rafted for running the slides.
  • 1853  . . . they also [drill] a mortice-hole through it at both ends of the timber, which was made on purpose to pass the withes through when rafting them.
  • 1854  If the stream in which the timber is hauled out is not navigable for cribs, "driving" is resorted to--the loose sticks with the "floats" and "traverses" for rafting it are allowed to float down, followed by the lumbermen in canoes and along shore. . . .
  • 1871  (1872)  When the timber has been driven down to large rivers or lakes, it is rafted; then it is wharped, or towed by steamers to the saw mills. . . .
  • 1945  With the help of a neighbour he cut square timber, probably oak, rafted it . . . ran his little raft to Quebec and sold it.

• 3 v. See 1883 quote.

  See also: raft ((n.)) (def. 3)  rafted ice  rafter ((v.))  rafting (def. 2)  

  • 1883  Or, under pressure of the storm, it frequently happens that the ice is "rafted," as the sealers call it; that is the fragments are piled in layers one over the other to the height of thirty or forty feet, being lifted by the swell and hurled forward as if from large catapults.
  • 1939  On the sea and large lakes ice seldom forms smoothly. Early storms break it and pack it in confusion, and pressure causes it to "raft."
  • 1958  And there Bozo is now, surrounded by pack ice which is being rafted by tides and frost into a jumble of pressure-ice.