scaffold

[ skaf-uhld, -ohld ]

noun

1. a temporary structure for holding workers and materials during the construction, repair, or decoration of a building.
2. an elevated platform on which a criminal is executed, usually by hanging.
3. a raised platform or stage for shows or performances, the seating of spectators, etc.
4. any raised framework or system of such frameworks.
5. a suspended platform used by painters, window washers, and others for working on a tall structure, such as a skyscraper.
6. Cell Biology, Genetics. any of various extracellular framelike components found naturally in genomic material and synthesized for tissue engineering.
7. Metallurgy. any piling or fusion of materials in a blast furnace, obstructing the flow of gases and preventing the uniform descent of the charge.

verb (used with object)

1. to furnish (a building or other structure) with a system of temporary platforms for supporting workers and materials during construction, repairs, cleaning, etc.:

   Our team will scaffold the building in order to provide access for restorative work and maintenance.

2. to be the support or foundation for:

   All knowledge is scaffolded by its physical and social contexts.

3. Education.
   1. to aid (learners or their learning) using a method in which support in the application of a new skill is gradually reduced until the individual learner can demonstrate it independently, after which the mastered skill becomes the basis for acquiring the next new skill in a similar way:

      Showing students how to do something can be an effective first step in scaffolding learning.

      The program scaffolds middle-school learners through the scientific inquiry process.

   2. to design (learning materials, curriculum, etc.) to suit this method of instruction:

      This paper explains the model used to scaffold lessons for English language learners.

scaffold

/ ˈskæfəld; -fəʊld /

noun

1. a temporary metal or wooden framework that is used to support workmen and materials during the erection, repair, etc, of a building or other construction
2. a raised wooden platform on which plays are performed, tobacco, etc, is dried, or (esp formerly) criminals are executed

verb

1. to provide with a scaffold
2. to support by means of a scaffold

Derived Forms

• ˈscaffolder, noun

Other Words From

• un·scaf·fold·ed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of scaffold¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English scaffalde, scaffot, skaffaut, from Old French escadafaut; akin to catafalque

Word History and Origins

Origin of scaffold¹

C14: from Old French eschaffaut, from Vulgar Latin catafalicum (unattested); see catafalque

Example Sentences

You, the parent, are the scaffold that surrounds the building.

From Time

After the cells grew and divided, the researchers placed them in a gel scaffold and bathed the cells in hormones.

From Singularity Hub 

Within this capsule the scientists could make out the stirrup-shaped basal plate, which acts as a scaffold for softer tissues such as the inflated phallus, Swanson said.

From Popular-Science

We basically create a scaffold that provides the right guidance…for cells to take up fats in different places or become more striated.

From Singularity Hub 

Other innovative approaches have used apples as scaffolds for ears, or added antibiotics and other medication directly inside 3D-printed bones to help battle inflammation.

From Singularity Hub 

Two young black men stood under a scaffold outside the church trying to keep dry.

From The Daily Beast

But of course no such “prophetic sight” or “spiritual glance,” as Villard also imagined it, carried that far from the scaffold.

From The Daily Beast

For me, technology is a delightfully helpful crutch to scaffold me into more advanced meditative practices.

From The Daily Beast

They were seeded in a lab onto a plastic scaffold, where it took less than a week for them to multiply and create a new windpipe.

From The Daily Beast

And he walked into Lombard Street with the feelings of a culprit walking up the scaffold to his execution.

From Project Gutenberg

A Workman, who was mounted on a high scaffold to repair a town clock, fell from his elevated station, upon a man who was passing.

From Project Gutenberg

The Tories were reminded that his soldiers had guarded the scaffold before the Banqueting House.

From Project Gutenberg

She was summoned to present herself before the Convention, to confront her accuser, and defend herself from the scaffold.

From Project Gutenberg

Madame Roland had continued writing her memoirs until the hour in which she left her cell for the scaffold.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• scaffolding
• stage