Word.ws English Dictionary

rickroll

Syllables: rick·roll/ˈɹɪkɹəʊl/US/ˈɹɪkˌɹoʊl/

rickroll verb: to mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".

rickroll: to mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that...
Image: Ben W, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb (1)

rickroll (third-person singular simple present rickrolls, present participle rickrolling, simple past and past participle rickrolled)

  1. (transitive) To mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".
    • I try not to get rickrolled by sketchy YouTube links, but sometimes you let your guard down.
    • Once you start rickrolling people, and more importantly get a reputation for it, you're heading towards being the Zimbabwean dollar in the link economy: it doesn't matter how many you offer, people just aren't going to buy them.2008 December 5, Charles Arthur, “Why rickrolling is bad for you”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Oct 2022
  2. (broadly, transitive) To surprise or trick (someone) into hearing this song.
    • The DJ rickrolled the whole audience by suddenly playing Rick Astley’s hit song.
    • Two men on the sidelines surprised the crowd by blasting the British singer Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up” through the gym, while one, dressed as a look-alike in Mr. Astley’s signature trench coat, lip-synched and mugged to the music: a popular prank known as rickrolling.[2008 March 24, Evelyn Nussenbaum, “The ’80s Video That Pops Up, Online and Off”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jan...
  3. (broadly, transitive) To cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method, such as through steganography, sheet music, or by inserting the lyrics into an unrelated context.
    • She inserted the lyrics of “Never Gonna Give You Up” into her speech so casually that most listeners didn’t even realize they’d been rickrolled.
    • For their latest hack, students decided to RickRoll the Dome in the nerdiest way possible—by wrapping the first eight notes of the now infamous pop song around it's exterior.2009 September 14, Brett Israel, “Never Gonna Give You Up: MIT Gets RickRolled”, in Discover: Science for the Curious, Waukesha, Wis.: Kalmbach Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...

Noun (1)

rickroll (plural rickrolls)

  1. (Internet, transitive) An act of or attempt at rickrolling.
    • You have to check out this link. Not a rickroll.
    • Now, I know that the the^([sic]) problem with what I'm saying is that it sounds like a recipe for being really boring and humdrum. Links, links, links. I'm not really; the rickroll has a value, to spike peoples' inflated expectations, or remind them—wittily—of their weaknesses: […]2008 December 5, Charles Arthur, “Why rickrolling is bad for you”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Oct 2022

Verb (2) capitalized: Rickroll

Rickroll (third-person singular simple present Rickrolls, present participle Rickrolling, simple past and past participle Rickrolled)

  1. to rickroll (to mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up")
    • YouTube ‘Rickrolls’ Everyone [title] […] Let the Internet pranking begin! YouTube, capitalizing on the resurgence of a popular meme, has booby-trapped each of the “featured videos” on its homepage. Click on any of the showcased clips and you’ll be taken instead to a cheesy video of pop singer Rick...2008 April 1, Jenna Wortham, “YouTube ‘Rickrolls’ Everyone”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Aug 2020
    • You send a Web link to someone, promising something exciting or compelling ("Is this you!?")—but the link actually takes your victim to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's 1987 music video, "Never Gonna Give You Up." That's it. That's the joke. Ha! You've been Rickrolled!2020, David Pogue, “The Internet Celebrity Culture [Internet Memes 101: A Guide to Online Wackiness]”, in Social Media Influencers: Apps, Algorithms and Celebrities (In the Headlines), New York...
  2. to rickroll (to surprise or trick (someone) into hearing this song)
    • In 2008, Astley proved he was a good sport about the joke, interrupting a song on the float for "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" to Rickroll the parade.2014 November 26, Tim Donnelly, “10 historic moments from Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 May 2022
    • Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has "Rickrolled" an audience, all in the name of climate activism. Thunberg danced to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on Saturday, in front of a crowd at Climate Live, a youth-led concert for climate action.2021 October 18, Amy Woodyatt, “Greta Thunberg ‘Rickrolls’ climate concert with crazy dance moves”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Oct 2022
  3. to rickroll (to cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method, such as through steganography, sheet music, or by inserting the lyrics into an unrelated context)
    • Yesterday, Korva pointed to an amusing video of lawmakers Rickrolling the Oregon State House. […] So what Oregon lawmakers did was include snippets of the song's lyrics into their speeches on the House floor and then stich it together to make the tune.2011 April 13, Eyder Peralta, “Rickrolled: Or How One Politician Overcame Partisan Divide to Pull a Prank”, in All Things Considered, NPR, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2022

Noun (2) capitalized: Rickroll

Rickroll (plural Rickrolls)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of rickroll, particularly
  2. (Internet) rickroll (an act of or attempt at rickrolling)
    • I find some Rickrolls really funny. Have you seen the one with President Barack Obama? Someone has cut up his speeches and put them together so that he sings "Never Gonna Give You Up." It's totally amazing. I find it bonkers, by the way!2009 April 30, Rick Astley, “moot”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 May 2022
    • Now 4chan is the largest active forum in the United States. […] It's the originator of countless memes, including Lolcats and my personal favourite, Rickrolls.2013, Austen Kay, “Teenage Kicks”, in Simon Pont, editor, Digital State: How the Internet is Changing Everything, London; Philadelphia, Pa.: Kogan Page, →ISBN, page 74

Forms of rickroll

Verb
third-person singular presentrickrolls
present participlerickrolling
past participlerickrolled
pastrickrolled
alternative formRickroll
alternative formRick-Roll
alternative formrick-roll
third-person singular presentRickrolls
present participleRickrolling
past participleRickrolled
pastRickrolled
Noun
pluralrickrolls
pluralRickrolls

Origin of rickroll

The verb is a blend of Rick + duckroll, combining the name of the British pop singer and songwriter Rick Astley (born 1966) with a reference to the duckroll prank on the website 4chan, in which users tricked into clicking on a hyperlink were led to an image of a duck on wheels. The word was coined by the American YouTuber Shawn Cotter (born 1987) who, under the handle “cotter548”, uploaded the music video of Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) to the online video-sharing service YouTube and then posted messages on 4chan on May 15, 2007 ostensibly with links to a trailer for the forthcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV. People who clicked on the links instead saw the Astley video with the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” scrolling across the screen. The noun is derived from the verb.

Words formed from rickroll

Questions about rickroll

What does rickroll mean?
Rickroll means to mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".
What part of speech is rickroll?
Rickroll can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce rickroll?
Rickroll is pronounced /ˈɹɪkɹəʊl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of rickroll?
The past tense of rickroll is rickrolled.

Words near rickroll in the dictionary

  1. Rickmansworth
  2. Rickover
  3. Rickovers
  4. rickrack
  5. rickracks
  6. rickroll
  7. rickrolled
  8. rickrollee
  9. rickrollees
  10. rickroller
  11. rickrollers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rickroll (page history and authors); Rickroll (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-rickroll.wav.

Cite this entry: “rickroll.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rickroll. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.