scaffolds

Noun

scaffold (plural scaffolds)

1. A structure made of scaffolding for workers to stand on while working on a building.
   • 1. A scaffold must be able to hold four times the load it is expected to carry. / 2. The footing for a scaffold must be level and solid and must not have motion when weight is applied. The scaffold must be level and plumb.1999, William P[erkins] Spence, “Ladders, Scaffolding & Runways”, in Carpentry & Building Construction: A Do-it-yourself Guide, New York, N.Y.: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 26
2. An elevated platform on which a criminal is executed.
   • The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced...1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament...
3. An elevated platform on which dead bodies are ritually disposed of, as by some Native American tribes.
4. An accumulation of adherent, partly fused material forming a shelf or dome-shaped obstruction above the tuyeres in a blast furnace.
5. A structure that provides support for some other material.
   • [T]he inventors of the present invention have found that the above-described recombinant gelatin contained in the scaffold for vascular endothelial cell migration according to the present invention markedly promotes migration of vascular endothelial cells. Therefore, use of the scaffold for...2011 September 29, Reiko Iwazawa, Kentaro Nakamura, Scaffold for Vascular Endothelial Cell Migration, US Patent US 20130084638 A1
6. A device in scaffolding, i.e. the provision of a framework or support for achieving an intended outcome of internalizing learnings by way of collaboration and later gradual withdrawal of support.

See all 10 meanings of scaffold