eave

E1A1V4E1
UK/iːv/US/iv/

A form of eaves — The underside of a roof that extends beyond the external walls of a building.

UncommonFirst used mid 18th c.Scrabble 7

Meanings

nouneave (plural eaves)

plural eaves

  1. alternativearchitectureAlternative form of eaves (“the underside of a roof that extends beyond the external walls of a building”)First known use mid 18th c.

    Features such as shutters, eave brackets, transoms, a wraparound porch, and a pergola all help establish the style of this home.

    2006 February, Jill Kirchner Simpson, “Building a Modular Home”, in Country Living, volume 29, number 2, page 51
    1 more example

    Among other work done, according to the letter: CPR replaced the bottom of a deteriorating stair column base with hollow steel structural sections; conducted exploratory demolition on the underside of an eave that required “removal and reconstruction”; and removed all loose “cracked, spalled, deteriorated, and delaminated concrete” and damaged stucco from the underside of balcony eaves on 114 of the building’s 136 units, the letter said.

    2021 July 2, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Alta Spells, Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman, “Firm held off on repairs because of stability issues in months before Surfside building collapse”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Nov 2021

Origin

A back-formation from eaves, from a misinterpretation of the -s ending as forming a plural.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with eave

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Sounds the same

Cite this entry
APA

eave. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eave

MLA

“eave.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eave. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eave,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eave.

Source: eave on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.