roof, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

roof n.

1. a hat; thus drop one’s roof v., to lose one’s hat; unroof, to take off one’s hat.

1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 June 2/5: He preserved his tile upon his ocaput till he reached the presence of the dread Inspector, when Mr. Stewart was un- roofed by the busy hands of [constable] A III.
[1860		T. Haliburton Season Ticket 9: They wear hats that have no roofs on ’em].
1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 46: Plug, a silk hat, of the stove-pipe or chimney-pot order. Also called beaver, tile and roof.
1896		Roanoke Dly Times (Richmond, VA) 9 Feb. 6/3: You [...] wouldn’t last 15 minutes in Texas, unless you switched yaw doilect, got yaw hair cut, and blew that bum looking roof yaw wearing.
1915		N.Z. Truth 28 Aug. 7/7: Seth [...] raised his roof to the duchess, and passed on.
1919		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 3 Oct. 27: [cartoon caption] Petey — Sure, Hard Head — Iron Hat I guess I’ll get me a new roof.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 7/1: Dropping one’s roof – Losing one’s hat.

2. the human head.

[1673		M. Stevenson Norfolk Drollery 86: [in sense of hair] ’Tis well his Pate was weather-proof, / For Palace-like it had no Roof: / The hair was off].
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 60: ‘Will you have the kindness to explain what you mean by the prisoner having “a loose slate”?’ ‘A tile off. Something wrong about the roof – the garret – the upper story – the nut.’.
c.1880		‘US Army Sl. 1870s–1880s’ [compiled by R. Bunting, San Diego CA, 2001] Roof Your head.
1893		H. Lawson ‘Macquarie’s Mate’ in Roderick (1972) 122: The Example ruefully rubbed a corner of his roof with the palm of his hand.
1909		C.B. Chrysler White Slavery 70: Can you imagine some poor ignorant ‘stiff’ going out and ‘prowling’ some house, takin’ a chance on gettin’ his ‘roof blowed off,’ or gettin’ ‘slowed’ and ‘slammed’ in the stir for a ‘ten spot.’.
1919		Van Loan ‘Mister Conley’ in Score by Innings (2004) 432: [He] ought to have his roof examined by the nut commissioners.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 53: When you’ve mowed your lawn righteously with that Jesse James Killer, lay your mellow roof into the sack.
1960		(con. 1940s) G. Morrill Dark Sea Running 92: He was the rough swaggeroo who popped his roof in the messroom all the time.

3. (US) the top of the (sports) listings.

1914

T. McNamara Us Boys 15 Aug. [synd. cartoon strip] I goes and yanks de Giants [sandlot team] outa de cellar and lands ’em on de roof, don’t I?

blow one’s roof (out) (v.) (US)

1. to act hysterically, to act irrationally.

1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 93: Nut Up To completely lose control of oneself. […] (Archaic: blow one’s roof, break up).
2000		PADA Newsletter 19 July 🌐 Now, you and Sanatan nut completely blew your roof out, madly united in screaming on and slashing those completely innocent, like victimized gurukulis and even Mr. Turley, instead of using your life-energy properly, ie running after real culprits.

2. to lose one’s temper.

1949		Phila. Inquirer 4 Sept. 7: I’d blow my roof [W&F].
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 216: Christ, I blew my roof at him.

your roof is leaking

a phr. used of an eccentric, an unstable person.

1947

N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 27: You’re a dangerous man to have on the streets. Your roof is leaking.

fall off the roof (v.)

1. to be menstruating.

1948		Word 4.3 184: Many of the terms [for menstruation] seem to defy classification. One of these, which is commonly used by high school and college girls is to fall off the roof (variants, to fall off, to be off).
1959		J. Thurber Years with Ross (2001) 11: We damn near printed a newsbreak about a girl falling off the roof. That’s feminine hygiene, somebody told me just in time.
1969		Current Sl. III:3 9: Off the roof, adj. Menstruating.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 194: This article and series devoted to sexual slang would be incomplete without some notice of catch phrases, both British and American: […] I fell off the roof (sexually incapacitated; also, menstruation).
1999		J. Randall ‘A Visit from Aunt Rose’ in Verbatim XXV:1 Winter 26: Falling off the roof is another code no one seems able to figure out: it may originate in the idea of a wound from falling, or possibly from the location of rag-laundering.

2. (US gay) to be in a nervous, irritable state.

1972

out on the roof

(US) out on a drunken spree.

1943

R. Chandler Lady in the Lake (1952) 36: I was out on the roof last night and I’ve got a hangover like seven Swedes.