a system of temporary structures having platforms to support workers and materials during the construction, repair, or decoration of a building: The scaffolding on the cathedral is finally coming down, and the workers can move on.
materials for building such structures: We sell aluminum scaffolding to clients all over the country.
the act or process of building such structures: During the scaffolding of the building complex, a specially designed lift carried all the pieces to their places.
a method of instruction in which the learner is provided with gradually reduced support in the application of a new skill until they can demonstrate it independently: the mastered skill then provides the basis for acquiring the next new skill in a similar way: Through careful scaffolding, my students learned to persevere and use a range of strategies to solve math problems.
the preparation or design of learning materials for use with this method: This grading approach requires the careful and strategic scaffolding of lesson plans and assignments.
anything that forms a support or basis for something else: The general framework of subtasks provides a scaffolding for the more complex computational tasks.
relating to or involving raised platforms or their construction: A variety of different scaffolding materials are available for your building project.The fair is aimed at reps from companies that regularly hire scaffolding contractors.
Education. relating to, involving, or intended for a method of teaching skills by giving the learner gradually reduced support in applying a new skill until they can demonstrate it independently, after which it becomes the basis for learning the next skill: Some scaffolding exercises were given to students to strengthen their understanding.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use scaffolding in a sentence
Denizens of Washington are conditioned to this whiplash by the time the Inauguration scaffolding starts to go up on Capitol Hill.
Rioters swarmed, battering the officers with metal pipes peeled from scaffolding and a pole with an American flag attached, police said.How battered D.C. police made a stand against the Capitol mob | Peter Hermann | January 15, 2021 | Washington Post
They saw a crowd starting to move toward the Capitol, she said, and soon she could see some of them climbing on the scaffolding.As U.S. Capitol attack unfolded, some Hill staffers remembered their school-shooting drills | Joe Heim, Valerie Strauss | January 14, 2021 | Washington Post
The mob knocked down barricades and used the scaffolding erected for the inauguration ceremony to scale the walls and swarm through windows and doors.
She calculated the risk of climbing two levels up a center scaffolding to get a view of the scene.What it was like to photograph the insurrection at the Capitol | Alex Scimecca | January 9, 2021 | Fortune
Today the church is wrapped in scaffolding and metal ribbons are holding its façade in place until someone pays to repair it.Madonna, Carla Bruni & Obama Abandoned Pledges To Rebuild L'Aquila After The Quake | Barbie Latza Nadeau | November 18, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
“As you all know, we had a scaffolding incident here at One World Trade Center,” he now said.
Davis requires a sound scaffolding of fact and proof for his enthusiasms.
Even when a skeleton displays no evidence of disability, it might have been the scaffolding for an unhealthy body.
She was walking down the scaffolding, with all the lights in front of her.
And the sawn planks come from Russia and the Baltic, and the larches for scaffolding from the Merionethshire valleys.Mushroom Town | Oliver Onions
So they set to work and made a tower of scaffolding with ropes, with timbers, with spars saved from their ships.Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa | Edward Hutton
For the rest, figures are but the scaffolding, the method, and do not exist in Nature.Astronomy for Amateurs | Camille Flammarion
He stopped, leaning against scaffolding as he saw a familiar figure turn toward him.Tight Squeeze | Dean Charles Ing
The Priory is all scaffolding and paint; and we are still in a nightmare of uncertainty about our boys.George Eliot's Life, Vol. II (of 3) | George Eliot
British Dictionary definitions for scaffolding
a scaffold or system of scaffolds
the building materials used to make scaffolds
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012