Word.ws English Dictionary

roll

UK/ɹəʊl//ɹoʊl/

roll verb: to revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with a revolving motion on a supporting surface.

roll: to revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with...
Image: Ruthie rrruthie, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

roll (third-person singular simple present rolls, present participle rolling, simple past and past participle rolled)

  1. (ergative) To revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with a revolving motion on a supporting surface.
    • To roll a wheel, a ball, or a barrel.
    • The child will roll on the floor.
  2. (ergative) 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.
    • The cloth rolls unevenly; the snow rolls well.
  3. (transitive) To bind or involve by winding, as with a bandage; to enwrap; often with up.
    • To roll up the vase in bubble wrap.
  4. (ergative, figuratively, sometimes) To drive, impel, or flow onward with a steady, wave-like motion.
    • This river will roll its waters to the ocean.
    • The years roll on.
  5. (intransitive) To pour or trickle.
    • Drops of sweat rolled down his face.
  6. (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.
  7. (ergative) To press, level, spread, or form with a roller or rollers.
    • to roll a field; to roll paste; to roll steel rails.
    • The pastry rolls well.
  8. (ergative) To move upon rollers or wheels.
    • We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine. We passed on the way the van of the guests from Asquith.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
    • 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 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)
  9. (intransitive) To tumble in gymnastics; to do a somersault.
  10. (Canada, US, colloquial, intransitive) To leave or begin a journey; sometimes with out.
    • I want to get there early; let's roll.
    1. (Canada, US, colloquial, intransitive) To compete, especially with vigor.
      • OK guys, we're only down by two points. Let's roll!
    2. (Canada, US, colloquial, intransitive) To walk, especially leisurely or idly; to stroll.
      • Let's roll around town on foot and see the sights.
  11. (transitive) To beat with rapid, continuous strokes, as a drum; to sound a roll upon.
  12. 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.
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  1. (ergative) To turn over in one's mind, as of deep thoughts; to (cause to) be considered thoroughly.
    • 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
  2. (US, intransitive, slang) 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.2006 November 21, 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 16 May 2007
  3. (intransitive, 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.
  4. (intransitive, 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.
  5. (intransitive) To generate a random number.
  6. To perform an operation similar to a bit shift, but with the bit that "falls off the end" being wrapped around to the other end.
  7. (intransitive) To rotate about the fore-and-aft axis, causing its sides to go up and down. Compare pitch, yaw.
    1. (intransitive) To travel by sailing.
      • We're homeward bound from the Arctic ground,
        Rolling down to Old Maui19th c., anonymous author, “Rolling Down to Old Maui”
      • Now we are ready to head for the Horn
        Way-hey, roll and go!early 20th c., anonymous author, “Randy Dandy-O”
  8. (transitive) To beat up; to assault.
    • Sometimes I'd roll a stray drunk, maybe steal a suitcase . . . anything so I could make it till morning1990 June 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
  9. (ergative, slang) To (cause to) betray secrets or testify for the prosecution.
    • The feds rolled him by giving him a free pass for most of what he'd done.
    • He rolled on those guys after being in jail two days.
  10. (intransitive, slang) 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, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, page 169
  11. (ambitransitive) To (cause to) film.
    • The cameras are rolling.
    • It's time to roll the cameras.
  12. (transitive) 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.2012 April 15, 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.2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian
  13. (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.2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian
  14. (intransitive) To make a loud or heavy rumbling noise.
    • The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed.
  15. (transitive) To utter with an alveolar trill.
    • Many languages roll their r's.
  16. (US, transitive) To enrobe in toilet-paper (as a prank or spectacle).
    • The kids rolled the principal's house and yard.
  17. (transitive) To create a customized version of; often followed by one's own.
    • 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...2006, Keyboard, volume 32, page 188
  18. (transitive) To engage in sparring in the context of jujitsu or other grappling disciplines.
  19. (intransitive) 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.
  20. (transitive) To briskly arpeggiate (a chord), typically in an upward motion.
  21. (intransitive) To drum on the reverse of a game controller with one's fingers in rapid succession, pushing the controller face into the opposite hand such that a button is rapidly pressed and depressed.

Noun (1)

roll (plural rolls)

  1. The act or result of rolling, or state of being rolled.
    • the roll of a ball
    • Look at the roll of the waves.
  2. Something formed into a compact shape by being rolled up.
    • a roll of banknotes
  3. A forward or backward roll in gymnastics; going head over heels. A tumble.
  4. A heavy cylinder used to break clods.
  5. 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
  6. A swagger or rolling gait.
  7. A heavy, reverberatory sound.
    • Hear the roll of cannon.
    • There was a roll of thunder and the rain began to pour down.
  8. The uniform beating of a drum with strokes so rapid as scarcely to be distinguished by the ear.
  9. 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.
  10. The measure or extent to which a vessel rotates from side to side, about its fore-and-aft axis.
  11. The rotation angle about the longitudinal axis.
    • Calculate the roll of that aircraft.
  12. 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.
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  1. The act of, or total resulting from, rolling one or more dice.
    • Make your roll.
    • Whoever gets the highest roll moves first.
  2. A winning streak of continuing luck, especially at gambling (and especially in the phrase on a roll).
    • He is on a roll tonight.
  3. A training match for a fighting dog.
  4. (US) 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.
  5. The skill of righting a canoe or kayak which has capsized, without exiting the watercraft, or being assisted.
    • She has a bombproof roll.
  6. Any of various financial instruments or transactions that involve opposite positions at different expiries, "rolling" a position from one expiry to another.
  7. An operation similar to a bit shift, but with the bit that "falls off the end" being wrapped around to the other end.
  8. A 14-day deployment.

Noun (2)

roll (plural rolls)

  1. That which is rolled up.
    • a roll of fat, of wool, paper, cloth, etc.
  2. 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
  3. 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 Tower1713 Sir M. Hale, The History of the Common Law of England (posthumously published)
  4. A catalogue or list, (especially) one kept for official purposes.
    • The roll of solicitors contains the names of all admitted solicitors of a jurisdiction.
    • 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.
  5. A food preparation comprising one or more ingredients wrapped in, e.g., flatbread, lettuce leaf, etc.
    Synonyms:
    pinwheel, rollup, swirl
  6. A quantity of cloth wound into a cylindrical form.
    • a roll of carpeting; a roll of ribbon
  7. A cylindrical twist of tobacco.
  8. A kind of shortened raised biscuit or bread, often rolled or doubled upon itself; see also bread roll.
    • Well, then, fix it up nice, waiter, and make mine baked hash an’ mashed ’taters and stewed corn and waiter!—plain white bread, no fancy rolls!1936 December 23, Hazel Livingston, “‘Love’s Litany’”, in Walter V. Hogan, editor, The Daily Reporter, volume XX, number 53, White Plains, N.Y.: White Plains Publishing Company, →OCLC, chapter IX...
  9. (obsolete) A part; an office; a duty; a role.
    • THE Methods of Government and of Humane Society, muſt be Preſerv’d, where Every Man has his Roll, and his Station Aſſign’d him ; and it is not for One Man to break in upon the Province of Another.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Abstemius, &c.] Fab[le] CCCXI. A Son Singing at his Brothers Funeral.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare...
  10. 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

Proper noun capitalized: Roll

Roll

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Roland.
  2. A surname.

roll meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

roll in Hindi

to cause something to revolve by turning over and over
घूमाना ghūmānā
to wrap round on itself
लपेटना lapeṭnā
to drive or impel forward with an easy motion
लुढ़काना luṛhkānā
to beat with rapid, continuous strokes, as a drum
बजाना bajānā

roll in Tamil

to cause something to revolve by turning over and over
உருட்டு uruṭṭu
to turn over and over
உருள் uruḷ
that which is rolled up
சுருள் curuḷ

roll in Marathi

रोल करा, रोल

roll in Urdu

ڈھلکنا, ڈھلکانا
More languagesFewer languages
roll in Bengali
রোল, গুটান, তালিকা, পেষণী
roll in Telugu
దొరలు doralu, పొరలించు poraliñcu, పొర్లించు porliñcu, ఉరలు uralu
roll in Malayalam
ഉരുളുക uruḷuka, ഉരുട്ടുക uruṭṭuka, തിര tira
roll in Kannada
ಸುರುಳಿ, ಕಂಡಿಕೆ, ಉರುಳೆ, ಸುತ್ತು
roll in Punjabi
ਰੋਲ, ਰੋਲ ਕਰੋ
roll in Gujarati
લોટવું loṭvũ, વાળવું vāḷvũ
roll in Odia
ଲୋଟିବା loṭibā
roll in Sanskrit
लुठ् luṭh, लुट् luṭ, लुठति luṭhati
roll in Pashto
غښتل ǧəx̌tə́l
roll in Arabic
فَرَدَ farada, رَقَّ raqqa, ثَنَى ṯanā, لَفَّ laffa
roll in Thai
กลิ้ง glîng
roll in Vietnamese
lăn, cuốn, cuộn, quấn

Examples of roll in a sentence

  • the roll of her eyes
  • And her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
  • The gentleman aimed the ball once or twice and then threw it up the strand towards Cissy Caffrey but it rolled down the slope and stopped right under Gerty's skirt near the little pool by the rock.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page...
  • 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:
  • 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:

All 40 example sentences with roll

Synonyms of roll

Forms of roll

Verb
third-person singular presentrolls
present participlerolling
past participlerolled
pastrolled
second-person singular present (archaic)rollest
second-person singular past (archaic)rolledst
third-person singular present (archaic)rolleth
Noun
pluralrolls

Past tense of roll: rolled

Plural of roll: rolls

Origin of roll

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. Displaced native English welt and partially displaced English wallow.

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 and rotulus.

Words formed from roll

Phrases with roll

169 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with roll

47 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about roll

What does roll mean?
Roll means to revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with a revolving motion on a supporting surface.
What is roll in Hindi?
Roll in Hindi is घूमाना (ghūmānā), लपेटना (lapeṭnā), लुढ़काना (luṛhkānā). See Roll meaning in Hindi.
How do you use roll in a sentence?
the roll of her eyes
What part of speech is roll?
Roll can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce roll?
Roll is pronounced /ɹəʊl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of roll?
The past tense of roll is rolled.

Words near roll in the dictionary

  1. Rolins
  2. rolipram
  3. Rolison
  4. Rolisons
  5. rolitetracycline
  6. roll
  7. roll about
  8. roll around
  9. roll away
  10. roll back
  11. roll back the years

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: roll (page history and authors); Roll (page history and authors); roll (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); roll (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); roll (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ఉరలు (Telugu) (page history and authors); ഉരുട്ടുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); roll (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); roll (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); લોટવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ଲୋଟିବା (Odia) (page history and authors); लुट् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); غښتل (Pashto) (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: en-us-roll.ogg.

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