DCHP-2

rafting DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1 n. — Lumbering, Hist.

  the practice, business, or work of transporting (timber) by means of rafts (def. 2).

  See also: raft ((n.)) (def. 2)  raft ((v.)) (def. 2)  

  • c1778  (1964)  Each March the King's Purveyor certified the number and sizes of the sticks that had been brought to the stream, "trimmed four-square and fit for rafting."
  • 1697  (1929)  [our 3 boats went to ten shilling creek to rafting. . . .]
  • 1829  . . . the chap [a raftsman] was got weary of rafting, and his comrades suspected he meant to clear out.
  • 1844  Already has the rafting of Timber down the noble Ottawa for the Quebec Market commenced.
  • 1961  The crib was the type of raft usually found on the Ottawa and its tributaries, while the dram was used for rafting operations on Lake Ontario and the section of the St. Lawrence above Montreal.
  • 1963  . . . years after St. Lawrence rafting ceased, one could see, along the southeast coast of England, groynes built of rock-elm timber. . . .

• 2 n.

  of ice, the process of forming into rafts (def. 3).

  See also: raft ((n.)) (def. 3)  

  • 1918  (n.d.)  On them swept the floe, crashed into the fixed ice, shattered its edge, rose up out of water over it, which is called "rafting," forced itself on the unfortunate ship. . . .