The Collaborative International Dictionary
Roof \Roof\, n. [OE. rof, AS. hr?f top, roof; akin to D. roef cabin, Icel. hr?f a shed under which ships are built or kept; cf. OS. hr?st roof, Goth. hr?t. Cf. Roost.]
(Arch.) The cover of any building, including the roofing (see Roofing) and all the materials and construction necessary to carry and maintain the same upon the walls or other uprights. In the case of a building with vaulted ceilings protected by an outer roof, some writers call the vault the roof, and the outer protection the roof mask. It is better, however, to consider the vault as the ceiling only, in cases where it has farther covering.
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That which resembles, or corresponds to, the covering or the ceiling of a house; as, the roof of a cavern; the roof of the mouth.
The flowery roof Showered roses, which the morn repaired.
--Milton. -
(Mining.) The surface or bed of rock immediately overlying a bed of coal or a flat vein. Bell roof, French roof, etc. (Arch.) See under Bell, French, etc. Flat roof. (Arch.)
A roof actually horizontal and level, as in some Oriental buildings.
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A roof nearly horizontal, constructed of such material as allows the water to run off freely from a very slight inclination.
Roof plate. (Arch.) See Plate, n., 10.
Wikipedia
A flat roof is a roof which is almost level in contrast to the many types of sloped roofs. The slope of a roof is properly known as its pitch and flat roofs have up to approximately 10°. Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid climates and allow the roof space to be used as a living space or a living roof. Flat roofs, or "low-slope" roofs, are also commonly found on commercial buildings throughout the world. The National Roofing Contractors Association defines a low-slope roof as having a slope of 3-in-12 or less.
Usage examples of "flat roof".
A Slingsby ladder led us up into a square hut affair built in the centre of the flat roof.
It was the usual white stucco building with flat roof and balconies and some red tiling to relieve the monotony of the design.
A stovepipe full of knees and elbows emerged from one of the windows of the shop and jutted over the flat roof.
Three of the black ships had landed on the enormous, flat roof below and men in armor stood around a little outhouselike hut in the middle of the space.
It gave him an odd feeling to be standing on a flat roof looking down on the world.
I'm telling you what you already know: the icehouse was a box with a flat roof.
A coatless man, probably a caretaker, legs spread contentedly, occupied a chair on one flat roof drinking a cup of tea, a cat squatting beside him.
Three dark girls leaned over the parapet of a flat roof making Cockney catcalls to a group of Asian youths below.
Another she struck down upon a high flat roof, so that he fell like a shooting star out over the glimmering city.