roll

Etymology 1

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.

verb

(transitive) To cause to revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on an axis; to impel forward by causing to turn over and over on a supporting surface.
To roll a wheel, a ball, or a barrel.
(intransitive) To turn over and over.
The child will roll on the floor.
(intransitive) To tumble in gymnastics; to do a somersault.
(transitive) To wrap (something) round on itself; to form into a spherical or cylindrical body by causing to turn over and over.
To roll a sheet of paper; to roll clay or putty into a ball.
(transitive) To bind or involve by winding, as in a bandage; to enwrap; often with up.
To roll up the map for shipping.
(intransitive) To be wound or formed into a cylinder or ball.
The cloth rolls unevenly; the snow rolls well.
(ergative) To drive or impel forward with an easy motion, as of rolling.
This river will roll its waters to the ocean.
(ergative) To utter copiously, especially with sounding words; to utter with a deep sound; — often with forth, or out.
To roll forth someone's praises; to roll out sentences.
(transitive) To press or level with a roller; to spread or form with a roll, roller, or rollers.
to roll a field; to roll paste; to roll steel rails.
(intransitive) To spread itself under a roller or rolling-pin.
The pastry rolls well.
(ergative) To move, or cause to be moved, upon, or by means of, rollers or small wheels.
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. 2013-06-01, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)
(chiefly US, Canada, colloquial, intransitive) To leave or begin a journey.
I want to get there early; let's roll.
(chiefly US, Canada, colloquial, intransitive) To compete, especially with vigor.
OK guys, we're only down by two points. Let's roll!
(transitive) To beat with rapid, continuous strokes, as a drum; to sound a roll upon.
(geometry) 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.
(transitive) To turn over in one's mind; to revolve.
(US, slang, intransitive) To behave in a certain way; to adopt a general disposition toward a situation.
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. November 21 2006, 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 2007-05-16
(dice games, intransitive) To throw dice.
(dice games, transitive) To roll dice such that they form a given pattern or total.
If you roll doubles, you get an extra turn.

With two dice, you're more likely to roll seven than ten.
(roleplaying games) To create a new character in a role-playing game, especially by using dice to determine properties.
I'm gonna go and roll a new shaman tonight.
(intransitive, computing) To generate a random number.
(intransitive, aviation, nautical, of an aircraft or vessel) To rotate about the fore-and-aft axis, causing its sides to go up and down. Compare pitch.
(intransitive, in folk songs) To travel by sailing.
We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground / Rolling down to Old Maui 19th c., Rolling Down to Old Maui (anon.)

Now we are ready to head for the Horn / Way-hey, roll and go! early 20th c., Randy Dandy-O (anon.)
(transitive) To beat up; to assault.
Sometimes I'd roll a stray drunk, maybe steal a suitcase . . . anything so I could make it till morning 1990-06-10, Jan Herman, quoting Herbert Huncke, “The Beatnick's Beatnick”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

They rolled him for his money, and that would have been that, but the guy tried to fight back. 2006, Elizabeth Gaffney, Metropolis, page 422
(transitive, slang) To cause to betray secrets or to testify for the prosecution.
The feds rolled him by giving him a free pass for most of what he'd done.
(intransitive, slang) To betray secrets.
He rolled on those guys after being in jail two days.
(slang, intransitive) To be under the influence of MDMA (a psychedelic stimulant, also known as ecstasy).
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.” 2000, Michael Sunstar, Underground Rave Dance, Writers Club Press, page 15

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. 2003, Karin Slaughter, A Faint Cold Fear, HarperCollins, page 169

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 […]
(transitive, intransitive, of a camera) To (cause to) film.
The cameras are rolling.

It's time to roll the cameras.
(transitive, soccer) To slip past (a defender) with the ball.
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. April 15, 2012, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC

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. 9 March 2014, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian
(intransitive) To have a rolling aspect.
the hills rolled on

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. November 21 2019, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian
(figurative, intransitive) To perform a periodical revolution; to move onward as with a revolution.
The years roll on.
(intransitive) To move, like waves or billows, with alternate swell and depression.
(figurative, intransitive) to move and cause an effect on someone
Here tell me, if thou darest, my conscious soul, what different sorrows did within thee roll? 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon On The Vanity Of The World
(intransitive) To make a loud or heavy rumbling noise.
The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed.
(transitive) To utter with an alveolar trill.
Many languages roll their r's.
(transitive, US) To enrobe in toilet-paper (as a prank or spectacle).
The kids rolled the principal's house and yard.
(transitive) To create a customized version of.
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. 2000, Mark F. Komarinski, Cary Collett, Red Hat Linux System Administration Handbook, page 311

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. 2006, Keyboard, volume 32, page 188

For the second prototype's example, shown in Listing 5–64, we roll our own version of the Sum operator. 2010, Joseph Rattz, Adam Freeman, Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2010, page 208

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. 2015, Hyer Thomas, Derivatives Algorithms - Volume 1: Bones (Second Edition), page 135
(transitive, martial arts) To engage in sparring in the context of jujitsu or other grappling disciplines.
(intransitive, shipping) To load ocean freight cargo onto a vessel other than the one it was meant to sail on.
Containers will be rolled to another mother vessel.

noun

The act or result of rolling, or state of being rolled.
the roll of a ball

Look at the roll of the waves.

the roll of her eyes
A forward or backward roll in gymnastics; going head over heels. A tumble.
Something which rolls.
1. A heavy cylinder used to break clods.
2. One of a set of revolving cylinders, or rollers, between which metal is pressed, formed, or smoothed, as in a rolling mill.
  to pass rails through the rolls
A swagger or rolling gait.
A heavy, reverberatory sound.
Hear the roll of cannon.

There was a roll of thunder and the rain began to pour down.
The uniform beating of a drum with strokes so rapid as scarcely to be distinguished by the ear.
(nautical, aviation) 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.
(nautical) The measure or extent to which a vessel rotates from side to side, about its fore-and-aft axis.
The rotation angle about the longitudinal axis.
Calculate the roll of that aircraft.
An instance of the act of rolling an aircraft through one or more complete rotations about its longitudinal axis.
The pilots entertained the spectators at the airshow by doing multiple rolls.
The act of, or total resulting from, rolling one or more dice.
Make your roll.

Whoever gets the highest roll moves first.
A winning streak of continuing luck, especially at gambling (and especially in the phrase on a roll).
He is on a roll tonight.
A training match for a fighting dog.
(US, paddlesport) An instance of the act of righting a canoe or kayak which has capsized, without exiting the watercraft, or being assisted.
That was a good roll.
(paddlesport) The skill of righting a canoe or kayak which has capsized, without exiting the watercraft, or being assisted.
She has a bombproof roll.
(finance) Any of various financial instruments or transactions that involve opposite positions at different expiries, "rolling" a position from one expiry to another.

Etymology 2

From Middle English rolle, from Old French rolle, role, roule, from Medieval Latin rotulus (“a roll, list, catalogue, schedule, record, a paper or parchment rolled up”); as such, it is a doublet of role.

noun

That which is rolled up.
a roll of fat, of wool, paper, cloth, etc.
A document written on a piece of parchment, paper, or other materials which may be rolled up; a scroll.
Busy angels spread / The lasting roll, recording what we say. 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon On The Vanity Of The World
An official or public document; a register; a record.
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 1713 Sir M. Hale, The History of the Common Law of England (posthumously published)
A catalogue or list, (especially) one kept for official purposes.
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.

The roll and list of that army doth remain. c. 1666, John Davies, Historical Relations: Or, a Discovery of the True Causes Why Ireland Was Never Entirely Subdued, Nor Brought Under Obedience of the Crown of England Until the Beginning of the Reign of King James I
A quantity of cloth wound into a cylindrical form.
a roll of carpeting; a roll of ribbon
A cylindrical twist of tobacco.
A kind of shortened raised biscuit or bread, often rolled or doubled upon itself; see also bread roll.
(obsolete) A part; an office; a duty; a role.
A measure of parchments, containing five dozen.
Parchement is sold by the dozen, and by the roll of five dozens. 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 594

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/roll), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.