Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.]