Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ROIL'ING, ppr.

Rendering turbid; or exciting the passion of anger. Note. This word is as legitimate as any in the language.

ROINT, adv. [See AROYNT.]

ROIST, or ROIST'ER, v.i. [Arm. reustla, to embroil. This word belongs to the root of rustle, brigade, Sax. brysan, to shake, to rush, W. rhysiaw, to rush, to straiten, to entangle, rhysu, id.]

To bluster; to swagger; to bully; to be bold, noisy, vaunting or turbulent. [Not in use.] – Shak. Swift.

ROIST'ER, or ROIST'ER-ER, n.

A bold, blustering, turbulent fellow. [Not in use.]

ROIST'ER-LY, a.

Blustering; violent.

ROIST'ER-LY, adv.

In a bullying, violent manner. [Little used.]

ROK'Y, a. [See Reck.]

Misty; foggy; cloudy. [Not in use.] – Ray.

ROLL, n.

1. The act of rolling, or state of being rolled; as, the roll of a ball.
2. The thing rolling. – Thomson.
3. A mass made round; something like a ball or cylinder; as, a roll of fat; a roll of wool. – Addison. Mortimer.
4. A roller; a cylinder of wood, iron or stone; as, a roll to break clods. – Mortimer.
5. A quantity of cloth wound into a cylindrical form; as, a roll of woollen or satin; a roll of lace.
6. A cylindrical twist of tobacco.
7. An official writing; a list; a register; a catalogue; as, a muster-roll; a court-roll.
8. The beating of a drum with strokes so rapid as scarcely to be distinguished by the ear.
9. Rolls of court, of parliament, or of any public body, are the parchments on which are engrossed, by the proper officer, the acts and proceedings of that body, and which being kept in rolls, constitute the records of such public body.
10. In antiquity, a volume; a book consisting of leaf, bark, paper, skin or other material on which the ancients wrote, and which being kept rolled or folded, was called in Latin volumen, from volvo, to roll. Hence,
11. A chronicle; history; annals. Nor names more noble graced the rolls of fame. – Trumbull.
12. Part; office; that is, round of duty, like turn. [Obs.]

ROLL, v.i.

1. To move by turning on the surface, or with the successive application of all parts of the surface to a plane; as, a ball or wheel rolls on the earth; a body rolls on an inclined plane.
2. To move, turn or run on an axis; as a wheel. [In this sense, revolve is more generally used.]
3. To run on wheels. And to the rolling chair is bound. – Dryden.
4. To revolve; to perform a periodical revolution; as, the rolling year; ages roll away.
5. To turn; to move circularly. And his red eyeballs roll with living fire. – Dryden.
6. To float in rough water; to be tossed about. Twice ten tempestuous nights I roll'd. – Pope.
7. To move, as waves or billows, with alternate swells and depressions. Waves roll on waves.
8. To fluctuate; to move tumultuously. What diff'rent sorrows did within thee roll. – Prior.
9. To be moved with violence; to be hurled. Down they fell / By thousands, angel on archangel roll'd. – Milton.
10. To be formed into a cylinder or ball; as, the cloth rolls well.
11. To spread under a roller or rolling-pin. The paste rolls well.
12. To wallow; to tumble; as, a horse rolls.
13. To rock or move from side to side; as, a ship rolls in a calm.
14. To beat a drum with strokes so rapid that they can scarcely be distinguished by the ear.

ROLL, v.t. [D. and G. rollen; Sw. rulla; Dan. ruller; W. rholiaw; Fr. rouler, Arm. ruilha and rolla; It. rullare; Ir. rolam. It is usual to consider this word as formed by contraction from the Latin rotula, a little wheel, from rota, W. rhod, a wheel. But it is against all probability that all the nations of Europe have fallen into such a contraction. Roll is undoubtedly a primitive root, on which have been formed troll and stroll.]

1. To move by turning on the surface, or with a circular motion in which all parts of the surface are successively applied to a plane; as, to roll a barrel or puncheon; to roll a stone or ball. Sisyphus was condemned to roll a stone to the top of a hill, which, when he had done so, rolled down again, and thus his punishment was eternal.
2. To revolve; to turn on its axis; as, to roll a wheel or a planet.
3. To move in a circular direction. To dress, to troll the tongue and roll the eye. – Milton.
4. To wrap round on itself; to form into a circular or cylindrical body; as, to roll a piece of cloth; to roll a sheet of paper; to roll parchment; to roll tobacco.
5. To inwrap; to bind or involve in a bandage or the like. – Wiseman.
6. To form by rolling into round masses. – Peacham.
7. To drive or impel any body with a circular motion, or to drive forward with violence or in a stream. The ocean rolls its billows to the shore. A river rolls its waters to the ocean.
8. To spread with a roller or rolling-pin; as, to roll paste.
9. To produce a periodical revolution. Heav'n shone and roll'd her motions. – Milton.
10. To press or level with a roller; as, to roll a field. To roll one's self, to wallow. – Mic. i.

ROLL'ED, pp.

Moved by turning; formed into a round or cylindrical body; leveled with a roller, as land.

ROLL'ER, n.

1. That which rolls; that which turns on its own axis; particularly, a cylinder of wood, stone or metal, used in husbandry and the arts. Rollers are of various kinds and used for various purposes.
2. A bandage; a fillet; properly, a long and broad bandage used in surgery.
3. A bird of the magpie kind, about the size of a jay. – Dict. Nat. Hist. A bird of the genus Coracias, found in Europe; called also the German Parrot. – Ed. Encyc.

ROLL'ERS, n. [plur.]

Heavy waves which set in upon a coast without wind.

ROLL'ING, a.

Wavy; rising and falling in gentle slopes, as the rolling land of prairies.

ROLL'ING, n.

The motion of a ship from side to side.

ROLL'ING, ppr.

Turning over; revolving; forming into a cylinder or round mass; leveling, as land.

ROLL'ING-PIN, n.

A. round piece of wood, tapering at each end, with which paste is molded and reduced to a proper thickness. – Wiseman.

ROLL'ING-PRESS, n.

An engine consisting of two cylinders, by which cloth is calendered, waved and tabbied; also, an engine for taking impressions from copper-plates; also, a like engine for drawing plates of metal, &c.

ROLL'Y-POOL-Y, n. [said to be roll and pool, or roll, ball and pool.]

A game in which a ball, rolling into a certain place, wins. – Arbuthnot.

ROM-AGE, n.

Bustle; tumultuous search. [See Rumage.] – Shak.

RO-MA'IC, a.

An epithet of the modern Greek language.

RO-MAL, n. [romaul'.]

A species of silk handkerchief.

RO'MAN, a. [L. Romanus, from Roma, the principal city of the Romans in Italy. Rome is the oriental name Ramah, elevated, that is, a hill; for fortresses and towns were often placed on hills for security; Heb. and Ch. רום, to be high, to raise. Class Rot, No. 3.]

1. Pertaining to Rome, or to the Roman people.
2. Romish; popish; professing the religion of the pope. Roman Catholic, as an adjective, denoting the religion professed by the people of Rome and of Italy, at the head of which is the pope or bishop of Rome; as, a noun, one who adheres to the papal religion.

RO'MAN, n.

1. A native of Rome.
2. A citizen of Rome; one enjoying the privileges of a Roman citizen.
3. One of the Christian churches at Rome to which Paul addressed an epistle, consisting of converts from Judaism or paganism.

RO-MANCE', n. [romans', ro'mans; Fr. roman; It. romanzo; Sp. romance, the common vulgar language of Spain, and romance; Port. id. any vulgar tongue, and a species of poetry; W. rham, a rising over; rhamant, a rising over, a vaulting or springing, an omen, a figurative expression, romance, as an adjective, rising boldly, romantic; rhamanta, to rise over, to soar, to reach to a distance, to divine, to romance, to allegorize; rhamantu, to use figurative or high flown language, &c. The Welsh retains the signification of the oriental word from which Rome is derived, and indeed the sense of romance is evidently from the primitive sense of the root, rather than from the use of the Roman language. The Welsh use of the word proves also the correctness of the foregoing derivation of Roma, and overthrows the fabulous account of the origin of the word from Romulus or Remus. It is probable that this word is allied to ramble.]

1. A fabulous relation or story of adventures and incidents designed for the entertainment of readers; a tale of extraordinary adventures, fictitious and often extravagant, usually a tale of love or war, subjects interesting the sensibilities of the heart or the passions of wonder and curiosity. Romance differs from the novel, as it treats of great actions and extraordinary adventures; that is, according to the Welsh signification, it vaults or soars beyond the limits of fact and real life, and often of probability. The first romances were a monstrous assemblage of histories, in which truth and fiction were blended without probability; a composition of amorous adventures and the extravagant ideas of chivalry. – Encyc.
2. A fiction. – Prior.