roll — English Dictionary

roll
Pronunciations (15)
  • /ɹəʊl/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • [ɹɒʊɫ]
    Pronunciation notes
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /ɹɒl/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /ɹoʊl/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Canada
    • General-American
  • [ɹoʊɫ]
    Pronunciation notes
    • Canada
    • General-American
  • /ɹol/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Canada
    • General-American
    • dialectal
  • /ɹəʉl/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Australia
  • [ɹɔʉ̯ɫ]
    Pronunciation notes
    • Australia
  • /ɹɔl/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Australia
  • /ɹɐʉl/
    Pronunciation notes
    • New-Zealand
  • [ɹoʉɫ]
    Pronunciation notes
    • New-Zealand
  • /ɾol/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Scotland
  • /ɾoul/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Wales
  • /rol/
    Pronunciation notes
    • South-Asia
  • /rɔ(w)l/
    Pronunciation notes
    • South-Asia

Verb

  1. 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.

    Usage
    • ergative
    Examples

    To roll a wheel, a ball, or a barrel.

    The child will roll on the floor.

    More examples (3)

    Huge Trunks of Trees, fell'd from the ſteepy Crown / Of the bare Mountains, rowl with Ruin down.

    And her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls.

    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.

  2. To wrap (something) round on itself; to form into a spherical or cylindrical body by causing to turn over and over.

    Usage
    • ergative
    Examples

    To roll a sheet of paper; to roll clay or putty into a ball.

    The cloth rolls unevenly; the snow rolls well.

  3. To bind or involve by winding, as with a bandage; to enwrap; often with up.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    To roll up the vase in bubble wrap.

  4. To drive, impel, or flow onward with a steady, wave-like motion.

    Usage
    • ergative
    • Figurative
    • sometimes
    Examples

    This river will roll its waters to the ocean.

    The years roll on.

  5. To pour or trickle.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • of drops of liquid
    Examples

    Drops of sweat rolled down his face.

  6. To utter copiously, especially with sounding words; to utter with a deep sound; — often with forth, or out.

    Usage
    • ergative
    Examples

    To roll forth someone's praises; to roll out sentences.

  7. To press, level, spread, or form with a roller or rollers.

    Usage
    • ergative
    Examples

    to roll a field; to roll paste; to roll steel rails.

    The pastry rolls well.

  8. To move upon rollers or wheels.

    Usage
    • ergative
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    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.

    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.

  9. To tumble in gymnastics; to do a somersault.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
  10. To leave or begin a journey; sometimes with out.

    Usage
    • Canada
    • US usage
    • Colloquial
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    I want to get there early; let's roll.

  11. To leave or begin a journey; sometimes with out. To compete, especially with vigor.

    Usage
    • Canada
    • US usage
    • Colloquial
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    OK guys, we're only down by two points. Let's roll!

  12. To leave or begin a journey; sometimes with out. To walk, especially leisurely or idly; to stroll.

    Usage
    • Canada
    • US usage
    • Colloquial
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    Let's roll around town on foot and see the sights.

  13. To beat with rapid, continuous strokes, as a drum; to sound a roll upon.

    Usage
    • Transitive
  14. 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.

  15. To turn over in one's mind, as of deep thoughts; to (cause to) be considered thoroughly.

    Usage
    • ergative
    Examples

    Here tell me, if thou darest, my conscious soul, what different sorrows did within thee roll?

  16. To behave in a certain way; to adopt a general disposition toward a situation.

    Usage
    • US usage
    • Intransitive
    • Slang
    Examples

    I was going to kick his ass, but he wasn't worth getting all worked up over; I don't roll like that.

    "This is how we roll in Spring Valley," one teen reportedly boasted.

  17. To throw dice. To roll dice such that they form a given pattern or total.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • Transitive
    Examples

    If you roll doubles, you get an extra turn.

    With two dice, you're more likely to roll seven than ten.

  18. To throw dice. To create a new character in a role-playing game, especially by using dice to determine properties.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    I'm gonna go and roll a new shaman tonight.

  19. To throw dice. To generate a random number.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
  20. 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.

  21. To rotate about the fore-and-aft axis, causing its sides to go up and down. Compare pitch, yaw.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • of an aircraft or vessel
  22. To rotate about the fore-and-aft axis, causing its sides to go up and down. Compare pitch, yaw. To travel by sailing.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • in folk songs
    • of an aircraft or vessel
    Examples

    We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground, Rolling down to Old Maui

    Now we are ready to head for the Horn Way-hey, roll and go!

  23. To beat up; to assault.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Sometimes I'd roll a stray drunk, maybe steal a suitcase . . . anything so I could make it till morning

    They rolled him for his money, and that would have been that, but the guy tried to fight back.

  24. To (cause to) betray secrets or testify for the prosecution.

    Usage
    • ergative
    • Slang
    Examples

    The feds rolled him by giving him a free pass for most of what he'd done.

    He rolled on those guys after being in jail two days.

  25. To be under the influence of MDMA (a psychedelic stimulant, also known as ecstasy).

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    • Slang
    Examples

    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.”

    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.

    More examples (1)

    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 […]

  26. To (cause to) film.

    Usage
    • Transitive or intransitive
    • of a camera
    Examples

    The cameras are rolling.

    It's time to roll the cameras.

  27. To slip past (a defender) with the ball.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    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.

    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.

  28. To have a rolling aspect.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    the hills rolled on

    More examples (1)

    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.

  29. To make a loud or heavy rumbling noise.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed.

  30. To utter with an alveolar trill.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Many languages roll their r's.

  31. To enrobe in toilet-paper (as a prank or spectacle).

    Usage
    • US usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    The kids rolled the principal's house and yard.

  32. To create a customized version of; often followed by one's own.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    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.

    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.

    For the second prototype's example, shown in Listing 5–64, we roll our own version of the Sum operator.

    More examples (1)

    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.

  33. To engage in sparring in the context of jujitsu or other grappling disciplines.

    Usage
    • Transitive
  34. To load ocean freight cargo onto a vessel other than the one it was meant to sail on.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    Containers will be rolled to another mother vessel.

  35. To briskly arpeggiate (a chord), typically in an upward motion.

    Usage
    • Transitive
  36. To drum on the reverse of a game controller with one's fingers in rapid succession, pushing the controller face into the opposite hand such that a button is rapidly pressed and depressed.

    Usage
    • Intransitive

Noun

  1. The act or result of rolling, or state of being rolled.

    Examples

    the roll of a ball

    Look at the roll of the waves.

    More examples (2)

    the roll of her eyes

    Leaving behind us the town at the bottom of its deep bay, we set out to explore a bluff-headed parallelogramical promontory, bounded by Thurso Bay on the one hand, and Murkle Bay on the other, and which presents to the open sea, in the space that stretches between, an undulating line of iron-bound coast, exposed to the roll of the northern ocean.

  2. Something formed into a compact shape by being rolled up.

    Examples

    a roll of banknotes

  3. A forward or backward roll in gymnastics; going head over heels. A tumble.

  4. Something which rolls. A heavy cylinder used to break clods.

  5. Something which rolls. One of a set of revolving cylinders, or rollers, between which metal is pressed, formed, or smoothed, as in a rolling mill.

    Examples

    to pass rails through the rolls

  6. A swagger or rolling gait.

  7. A heavy, reverberatory sound.

    Examples

    Hear the roll of cannon.

    There was a roll of thunder and the rain began to pour down.

  8. The uniform beating of a drum with strokes so rapid as scarcely to be distinguished by the ear.

  9. The oscillating movement of a nautical vessel as it rotates from side to side, about its fore-and-aft axis, causing its sides to go up and down, as distinguished from the alternate rise and fall of bow and stern called pitching; or the equivalent in an aircraft.

  10. The measure or extent to which a vessel rotates from side to side, about its fore-and-aft axis.

  11. The rotation angle about the longitudinal axis.

    Examples

    Calculate the roll of that aircraft.

  12. An instance of the act of rolling an aircraft through one or more complete rotations about its longitudinal axis.

    Examples

    The pilots entertained the spectators at the airshow by doing multiple rolls.

  13. The act of, or total resulting from, rolling one or more dice.

    Examples

    Make your roll.

    Whoever gets the highest roll moves first.

  14. A winning streak of continuing luck, especially at gambling (and especially in the phrase on a roll).

    Examples

    He is on a roll tonight.

  15. A training match for a fighting dog.

  16. An instance of the act of righting a canoe or kayak which has capsized, without exiting the watercraft, or being assisted.

    Usage
    • US usage
    Examples

    That was a good roll.

  17. The skill of righting a canoe or kayak which has capsized, without exiting the watercraft, or being assisted.

    Examples

    She has a bombproof roll.

  18. Any of various financial instruments or transactions that involve opposite positions at different expiries, "rolling" a position from one expiry to another.

  19. An operation similar to a bit shift, but with the bit that "falls off the end" being wrapped around to the other end.

  20. A 14-day deployment.

Noun

  1. That which is rolled up.

    Examples

    a roll of fat, of wool, paper, cloth, etc.

  2. A document written on a piece of parchment, paper, or other materials which may be rolled up; a scroll.

    Examples

    Busy angels spread / The lasting roll, recording what we say.

  3. An official or public document; a register; a record.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    As to the rolls of parliament, viz. the entry of the several petitions, answers and transactions in parliament. Those are generally and successively extant of record in the Tower

  4. A catalogue or list, (especially) one kept for official purposes.

    Examples

    The roll of solicitors contains the names of all admitted solicitors of a jurisdiction.

    Several people sued the state after finding out that they'd been removed from the voter rolls for having died, despite their not actually being dead.

    More examples (1)

    The roll and list of that army doth remain.

  5. A food preparation comprising one or more ingredients wrapped in, e.g., flatbread, lettuce leaf, etc.

  6. A quantity of cloth wound into a cylindrical form.

    Examples

    a roll of carpeting; a roll of ribbon

  7. A cylindrical twist of tobacco.

  8. A kind of shortened raised biscuit or bread, often rolled or doubled upon itself; see also bread roll.

    Examples

    Well, then, fix it up nice, waiter, and make mine baked hash an’ mashed ’taters and stewed corn and waiter!—plain white bread, no fancy rolls!

  9. A part; an office; a duty; a role.

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    THE Methods of Government and of Humane Society, muſt be Preſerv’d, where Every Man has his Roll, and his Station Aſſign’d him ; and it is not for One Man to break in upon the Province of Another.

  10. A measure of parchments, containing five dozen.

    Examples

    Parchement is sold by the dozen, and by the roll of five dozens.

Noun

  1. rotary motion of an object around its own axis

    Examples

    wheels in axial rotation

  2. a list of names

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    his name was struck off the rolls

  3. a long heavy sea wave as it advances towards the shore

    Broader terms
  4. photographic film rolled up inside a container to protect it from light

  5. a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles (as formed by leaves or flower petals)

    Broader terms
  6. a roll of currency notes (often taken as the resources of a person or business etc.)

    Synonyms
    Examples

    he shot his roll on a bob-tailed nag

  7. small rounded bread either plain or sweet

    Synonyms
  8. a deep prolonged sound (as of thunder or large bells)

    Broader terms
  9. the sound of a drum (especially a snare drum) beaten rapidly and continuously

    Broader terms
  10. a document that can be rolled up (as for storage)

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
  11. anything rolled up in cylindrical form

    Broader terms
  12. the act of throwing dice

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
  13. walking with a swaying gait

    Broader terms
  14. a flight maneuver; aircraft rotates about its longitudinal axis without changing direction or losing altitude

  15. the act of rolling something (as the ball in bowling)

    Synonyms
    Broader terms

Verb

  1. move by turning over or rotating

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    The child rolled down the hill

    turn over on your left side

  2. move along on or as if on wheels or a wheeled vehicle

    Synonyms
    Examples

    The President's convoy rolled past the crowds

  3. occur in soft rounded shapes

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    The hills rolled past

  4. flatten or spread with a roller

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    roll out the paper

  5. emit, produce, or utter with a deep prolonged reverberating sound

    Broader terms
    Examples

    The thunder rolled

    rolling drums

  6. arrange or coil around

    Broader terms
    Examples

    roll your hair around your finger

    Twine the thread around the spool

    More examples (1)

    She wrapped her arms around the child

  7. begin operating or running

    Examples

    The cameras were rolling

    The presses are already rolling

  8. shape by rolling

    Broader terms
    Examples

    roll a cigarette

  9. execute a roll, in tumbling

    Broader terms
    Examples

    The gymnasts rolled and jumped

  10. sell something to or obtain something from by energetic and especially underhanded activity

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
  11. move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion

    Broader terms
    Examples

    The curtains undulated

    the waves rolled towards the beach

  12. move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment

    Examples

    The gypsies roamed the woods

    roving vagabonds

    More examples (4)

    the wandering Jew

    The cattle roam across the prairie

    the laborers drift from one town to the next

    They rolled from town to town

  13. move, rock, or sway from side to side

    Broader terms
    Examples

    The ship rolled on the heavy seas

  14. cause to move by turning over or in a circular manner of as if on an axis

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    She rolled the ball

    They rolled their eyes at his words

  15. pronounce with a roll, of the phoneme /r/

    Examples

    She rolls her r's

  16. boil vigorously

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    The liquid was seething

    The water rolled

  17. take the shape of a roll or cylinder

    Examples

    the carpet rolled out

    Yarn rolls well

  18. show certain properties when being rolled

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    The carpet rolls unevenly

    dried-out tobacco rolls badly

Word forms
rollsrollingrolledrolledrolledrollestrolledrolledstrollethrolledrolledrolledrolls

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