Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A horizontal beam at the ridge of a roof to which the rafters are attached.
  • noun The horizontal pole at the top of a tent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The board or timber at the ridge of a roof, into which the rafters are fastened. Also called ridge-plate or ridge-piece. See cut under roof.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Arch.) The timber forming the ridge of a roof, into which the rafters are secured.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a horizontal pole that supports the roof of a tent
  • noun a beam along the ridge of a roof to which the rafters are attached

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a beam laid along the edge where two sloping sides of a roof meet at the top; provides an attachment for the upper ends of rafters

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

ridge +‎ pole

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Examples

  • None of the traditional carved totems rose from the ridgepole.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • We passed one of the elaborate clan houses, this one festooned with magnificent raccoon carvings; one was seated atop the ridgepole over the doorway, his forepaws dangling.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • Sculptures of Falcon and Rattlesnake adorned the ends of the soaring ridgepole, as if to threaten the Sky World itself.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • I made opening so I could slide the ridgepole (carefully!) through the tent rather than hanging it from the ridgepoles.

    Wall tents 2009

  • The mikko descended wooden stairs from his steep-roofed palace, its ridgepole adorned with sculptures of ivory-billed woodpeckers.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • We passed one of the elaborate clan houses, this one festooned with magnificent raccoon carvings; one was seated atop the ridgepole over the doorway, his forepaws dangling.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • I have a wife for you — nay, two wives, for your days are short and I shall surely live to see you hang with my fathers from the canoe-house ridgepole.

    CHAPTER XVIII 2010

  • From there he gained the roof of a chicken-house, passed over the ridgepole and dropped to the ground inside.

    The God's Domain 2010

  • None of the traditional carved totems rose from the ridgepole.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • I made opening so I could slide the ridgepole (carefully!) through the tent rather than hanging it from the ridgepoles.

    Wall tents 2009

Comments

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  • Anne walked this and broke her ankle falling off of it.

    November 1, 2012