Word.ws English Dictionary

roistering

roistering is the present participle and gerund of roister.

Meaning of roister

Verb

roister (third-person singular simple present roisters, present participle roistering, simple past and past participle roistered)

  1. (intransitive) To engage in noisy, drunken, or riotous behaviour.
    • Then Elzevir cried out angrily, 'Silence. Are you mad, or has the liquor mastered you? Are you Revenue-men that you dare shout and roister? or contrabandiers with the lugger in the offing, and your life in your hand. You make noise enough to wake folk in Moonfleet from their beds.'[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    carouse, revel, riot
  2. (intransitive) To walk with a swaying motion.
    Synonyms:
    swagger

See all 4 meanings of roister

Noun

roistering (plural roisterings)

  1. Noisy, drunken, or riotous behavior.
    • [H]e could look on with an eye of kindness at the lookers-on too; at the roystering youth bent upon enjoyment, and here taking it […]1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 47, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
    • Merry Mansions Sunday night, with loud parties in the distance. Matilda said she was going to have a good time at some heaven. And George Smith sat alone staring across the room. And out the window for a bit, at a roistering gathering of folk across the street. A city full of fathers with gathered...1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 86

Forms of roistering

pluralroisterings

Questions about roistering

What does roistering mean?
Roistering means noisy, drunken, or riotous behavior.
What is roistering the present participle and gerund of?
Roistering is the present participle and gerund of roister.
What part of speech is roistering?
Roistering is a noun.
What is the plural of roistering?
The plural of roistering is roisterings.

Words near roistering in the dictionary

  1. roister-doister
  2. roister-doisters
  3. roistered
  4. roisterer
  5. roisterers
  6. roistering
  7. roisteringly
  8. roisterings
  9. roisterly
  10. roisterous
  11. roisterously

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: roistering (page history and authors); roister (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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