roll
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹəʊl/
ipa: [ɹəʊɫ]
note: toe-tow merger
ipa: /ɹoʊl/
ipa: [ɹoʊɫ]
ipa: /ɹol/
ipa: /ɹəʉl/
ipa: /ɹəʉɫ/
ipa: /ɹɐʉl/
ipa: [ɹɐʉɫ]
ipa: /ɹɐʉl/
ipa: [ɹɐʉɫ]
note: Indic
ipa: /rol/
note: without the toe–tow merger
ipa: /rɔ(w)l/
rhymes: -əʊl
homophone: role
Forms: form: rolls
form: rolling
form: rolled
form: rolled
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: roll
form: roll
form: rolled
form: roll
form: rollest
form: rolled
form: rolledst
form: rolls
form: rolleth
form: rolled
form: roll
form: rolled
form: roll
form: rolled
form: roll
form: -
form: rolling
form: rolled
Etymology: From Middle English rollen, partly from Old French roller, roler, röeler, röoler, from Medieval Latin rotulāre (“to roll; to revolve”), from Latin rotula (“a little wheel”), diminutive of rota (“a wheel”); partly from Anglo-Latin rollāre, from the same ultimate source.
Senses: examples: text: To roll a wheel, a ball, or a barrel.
text: The child will roll on the floor.
text: Huge Trunks of Trees, fell'd from the ſteepy Crown / Of the bare Mountains, rowl with Ruin down.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 370, lines 267–268:
text: And her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls.
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: The gentleman aimed the ball once or twice and then threw it up the strand towards Cissy Caffrey but it rolled down the slope and stopped right under Gerty's skirt near the little pool by the rock.
ref: 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 13:
glosses: To revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with a revolving motion on a supporting surface.
examples: text: To roll a sheet of paper; to roll clay or putty into a ball.
text: The cloth rolls unevenly; the snow rolls well.
glosses: To wrap (something) round on itself; to form into a spherical or cylindrical body by causing to turn over and over.
examples: text: To roll up the vase in bubble wrap.
glosses: To bind or involve by winding, as with a bandage; to enwrap; often with up.
examples: text: This river will roll its waters to the ocean.
text: The years roll on.
glosses: To drive, impel, or flow onward with a steady, wave-like motion.
examples: text: To roll forth someone's praises; to roll out sentences.
glosses: To utter copiously, especially with sounding words; to utter with a deep sound; — often with forth, or out.
examples: text: to roll a field; to roll paste; to roll steel rails.
text: The pastry rolls well.
glosses: To press, level, spread, or form with a roller or rollers.
examples: text: We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
glosses: To move upon rollers or wheels.
glosses: To tumble in gymnastics; to do a somersault.
examples: text: I want to get there early; let's roll.
glosses: To leave or begin a journey; sometimes with out.
examples: text: OK guys, we're only down by two points. Let's roll!
glosses: To leave or begin a journey; sometimes with out.
To compete, especially with vigor.
examples: text: Let's roll around town on foot and see the sights.
glosses: To leave or begin a journey; sometimes with out.
To walk, especially leisurely or idly; to stroll.
glosses: To beat with rapid, continuous strokes, as a drum; to sound a roll upon.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: To apply (one line or surface) to another without slipping; to bring all the parts of (one line or surface) into successive contact with another, in such a manner that at every instant the parts that have been in contact are equal.
examples: text: Here tell me, if thou darest, my conscious soul,
what different sorrows did within thee roll?
ref: 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon On The Vanity Of The World:
glosses: To turn over in one's mind, as of deep thoughts; to (cause to) be considered thoroughly.
examples: text: I was going to kick his ass, but he wasn't worth getting all worked up over; I don't roll like that.
text: "This is how we roll in Spring Valley," one teen reportedly boasted.
ref: 2006 November 21, Chris McKenna, “Kids at party chant as police sergeant is beaten by angry teens”, in Times Herald-Record, Middletown, NY, archived from the original on 16 May 2007:
glosses: To behave in a certain way; to adopt a general disposition toward a situation.
examples: text: If you roll doubles, you get an extra turn.
text: With two dice, you're more likely to roll seven than ten.
topics: dice
games
glosses: To throw dice.
To roll dice such that they form a given pattern or total.
examples: text: I'm gonna go and roll a new shaman tonight.
topics: dice
games
glosses: To throw dice.
To create a new character in a role-playing game, especially by using dice to determine properties.
qualifier: roleplaying games
topics: computing
dice
engineering
games
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To throw dice.
To generate a random number.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: To perform an operation similar to a bit shift, but with the bit that "falls off the end" being wrapped around to the other end.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
transport
glosses: To rotate about the fore-and-aft axis, causing its sides to go up and down. Compare pitch, yaw.
raw_tags: of an aircraft or vessel
examples: text: We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground,
Rolling down to Old Maui
ref: 19th c., anonymous author, “Rolling Down to Old Maui”:
text: Now we are ready to head for the Horn
Way-hey, roll and go!
ref: early 20th c., anonymous author, “Randy Dandy-O”:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
transport
glosses: To rotate about the fore-and-aft axis, causing its sides to go up and down. Compare pitch, yaw.
To travel by sailing.
raw_tags: in folk songs
of an aircraft or vessel
examples: text: Sometimes I'd roll a stray drunk, maybe steal a suitcase . . . anything so I could make it till morning
ref: 1990 June 10, Jan Herman, quoting Herbert Huncke, “The Beatnick's Beatnick”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
text: They rolled him for his money, and that would have been that, but the guy tried to fight back.
ref: 2006, Elizabeth Gaffney, Metropolis, page 422:
glosses: To beat up; to assault.
examples: text: The feds rolled him by giving him a free pass for most of what he'd done.
text: He rolled on those guys after being in jail two days.
glosses: To (cause to) betray secrets or testify for the prosecution.
examples: text: Cindy replied, “Wow, that’s great. Did you try E at those parties?” Steel said, “Oh yeah. I was rolling hard at the Willy Wonka party.”
ref: 2000, Michael Sunstar, Underground Rave Dance, Writers Club Press, →ISBN, page 15:
text: The crowd was rolling on Ecstasy, and the lights enhanced the experience. […] He would use it to keep his teeth from chattering while he was rolling.
ref: 2003, Karin Slaughter, A Faint Cold Fear, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 169:
text: a. 2007, unidentified Internet user quoted in Joseph A. Kotarba, “Music as a Feature of the Online Discussion of Illegal Drugs”, in Edward Murguía et al. (editors), Real Drugs in a Virtual World: Drug Discourse and Community Online, Lexington Books (2007), →ISBN
So the question is When you are rolling what gets you in that “ecstasy” state more: hard pounding energetic music or smoother and gentler music? Personally for me its gentler music because when I’m rolling my mind can’t really keep up with all the hard pounding intriquet sounds […]
glosses: To be under the influence of MDMA (a psychedelic stimulant, also known as ecstasy).
examples: text: The cameras are rolling.
text: It's time to roll the cameras.
glosses: To (cause to) film.
raw_tags: of a camera
examples: text: So it was against the run of play that their London rivals took the lead two minutes before the interval through Drogba. He rolled William Gallas inside the area before flashing a stunning finish high past keeper Carlo Cudicini.
ref: 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC:
text: Rolled far too easily by Marc-Antoine Fortuné, Demichelis compounded his error by standing on the striker's foot. In the absence of the injured Watson, Gómez converted the penalty.
ref: 2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian:
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
soccer
sports
glosses: To slip past (a defender) with the ball.
examples: text: the hills rolled on
text: In this part of Warwickshire, the land rolls gently, so that, upon cresting a low rise or passing a copse of wind turbines, you suddenly spot a lot full of lorries or a complex of gigantic sheds.
ref: 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To have a rolling aspect.
examples: text: The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed.
glosses: To make a loud or heavy rumbling noise.
examples: text: Many languages roll their r's.
glosses: To utter with an alveolar trill.
examples: text: The kids rolled the principal's house and yard.
glosses: To enrobe in toilet-paper (as a prank or spectacle).
examples: text: Let's go through and outline how you might roll a kernel for a networked Linux machine you are using as your desktop machine and a file server for a network of Windows and Mac machines.
ref: 2000, Mark F. Komarinski, Cary Collett, Red Hat Linux System Administration Handbook, page 311:
text: The clap in "Situation" is a standard Roland TR- 808 clap with a some compression and a bunch of reverb. But we can roll our own version using a soft synth and a have more flexibility, specifically in getting the extra decay for full "smash," as opposed to the short clap on Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines.
ref: 2006, Keyboard, volume 32, page 188:
text: For the second prototype's example, shown in Listing 5–64, we roll our own version of the Sum operator.
ref: 2010, Joseph Rattz, Adam Freeman, Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2010, page 208:
text: We implement Cube_ as a special case of an N-dimensional array. Unfortunately, our need to efficiently Swap with lower-dimensional containers is not supported by the boost::multi_array template, so we must roll our own.
ref: 2015, Hyer Thomas, Derivatives Algorithms - Volume 1: Bones (Second Edition), page 135:
glosses: To create a customized version of.
topics: government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
glosses: To engage in sparring in the context of jujitsu or other grappling disciplines.
examples: text: Containers will be rolled to another mother vessel.
topics: economics
sciences
shipping
transport
glosses: To load ocean freight cargo onto a vessel other than the one it was meant to sail on.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: To briskly arpeggiate (a chord), typically in an upward motion.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: a rolling stone gathers no moss
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: as easy as rolling off a log
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: cold roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: eye-roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: heads will roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: hot roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: leaf-rolling
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: let's roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: let the good times roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: like rolling off a log
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: lush-roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: off-roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: pick and roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: press roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: rag-roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: ready to roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: rollable
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll about
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll around
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll away
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll back
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll coal
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll deep
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll down
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roller
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll from one's tongue
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll from the tongue
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll in
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll in dough
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: rolling in clover
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: rolling in it
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll in one's grave
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll in the aisle
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll in the aisles
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll in the hay
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll in wealth
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll off
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: rolloff
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll off one's tongue
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll off the tongue
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll on
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll-on
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll one's eyes
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll one's own
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll one's r's
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll-on roll-off
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll-out
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: rollout
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll out
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll out the red carpet
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll over
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll-over
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll over in one's grave
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll tape
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll the dice
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll the pitch
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll the tape
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll the trucks
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll tide
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll up
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll up on
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll up the sidewalks
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll with
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll with it
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll with the punches
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: roll-your-own
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: set the ball rolling
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: slow roll
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: start the ball rolling
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: take a flying fuck at a rolling donut
sense: Terms derived from roll (verb)
word: wait till the clouds roll by