raft 1
/raft, rahft/ , n.
1. a more or less rigid floating platform made of buoyant material or materials: an inflatable rubber raft.
2. a collection of logs, planks, casks, etc., fastened together for floating on water.
3. See life raft .
4. a slab of reinforced concrete providing a footing on yielding soil, usually for a whole building, so that the weight of the soil that would be displaced by the settlement of the building exceeds the weight of the building itself; mat.
v.t.
5. to transport on a raft.
6. to form (logs or the like) into a raft.
7. to travel or cross by raft.
8. (of an ice floe) to transport (embedded organic or rock debris) from the shore out to sea.
v.i.
9. to use a raft; go or travel on a raft.
10. (of an ice floe) to overlap another ice floe.
[ 1250-1300; ME rafte, perh. raptr RAFTER 1 ]
raft 2
/raft, rahft/ , n. Informal.
a great quantity; a lot: a raft of trouble.
[ 1825-35; var. of RAFF large number (ME: abundance) ]