rokke 
rokket. A Middle English form of rocfcl, 
etc. 
roky (ro'ki), a. [Also rooky, rooky; < ME. roky, 
misty, < roke, mist: see roke and reek' 1 .'] Misty; 
foggy; cloudy. Ray. 
Roky, or mysty. Xehulosus. Prompt. Pare., p. 436. 
He ... in a roky hollow, belling, heard 
The hounds of Mark. 
Tennyson, Last Tournament. 
Rolandic (vo-lan'dik), . [< Rolando (see def.) 
+ -ic.] Pertaining to Kolando, an Italian 
anatomist and physiologist (died 1831). Com- 
pare postrolanAie (prrroltmrtir is also used). 
Rolandic fissure. Same as Jaaav of Rolando (which 
see, under ;iii<re). Rolandic funiculus. SeefuniclUm 
of Rolando, under funiculus. Rolandic line, a line on 
the surface of the skull (or head) marking the position of 
the fissure of Kolando beneath. Rolandic point, the 
intersection of the Rolandic lines with the median plane 
and with each other on the surface of the skull. It is 
about half an inch behind the middle of the line passitig 
over the skull from the glabella to the iniou. 
rolet, * An obsolete form of roll. 
rolet, . [A var. of roll.] A unit of quantity 
formerly in use in England, defined by a statute 
of Charles II. as seventy-two sheets of parch- 
ment. 
r61e (rol), n. [< F. rdle: see roll and rotary.] 
A part or character represented by an actor; 
any conspicuous part or function assumed by 
any one, as a leading public character Title 
role, the part in a play which gives its name to the play, 
as Hamlet In the play of " Hamlet," or Macbeth in that 
of "Macbeth." 
roll (rol), f. [Early mod. E. also rowl, rowle, 
roule; < ME. rotten, rolen (= D. rotten = MHG. 
rolen, G. rotten = Icel. rolla = Dan. rnlle = Sw. 
rulla), < OF. roler, roller, rueler, roeler, rouler. 
F. rouler, F. dial, roler, roller, roll, roll up, roll 
along, go on wheels, = Pr. rolar, rotlar = Cat. 
rotolar = Sp. rollar, rular = Pg. rolar = It. roto- 
lare, rullare, < ML. rotulare, roll, revolve, < L. 
rotula, a little wheel, dim. of rota, a wheel: see 
rote 1 . Cf. roll, .] I. intrans. 1. To move 
like a carriage-wheel; move along a surface 
without slipping by perpetually turning over 
the foremost point of contact as an instantane- 
ous axis : as, a ball or wheel rolls on the earth ; 
a body rolls on an inclined plane. 
The fayre hede fro the halce hit [fell! to the erthe, 
That fele hit foyned [spurned] wyth her fete, there hit 
forth rated. 
Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. S.), 1. 428. 
The rolling stone never gathereth mosse. 
Heywood, Proverbs (ed. Sharman). 
That goddess [Fortune] blind, 
That stands upon the rolling restless stone. 
Shak., Hen. V., iii. 6. 31. 
2. To run or travel on wheels. 
The wealthy, the luxurious, by the stress 
Of business roused, or pleasure, ere their time, 
May roll in chariots. Wordsworth, Excursion, ii. 
3. To revolve; perform a periodical revolu- 
tion. 
The rolling Year 
Is full of Thee. Thomson, Hymn, 1. 2. 
Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul, 
While the stars burn, the moons increase, 
And the great ages onward roll. 
Tennyson, To J. S. 
4. To turn ; have a rotatory motion, generally 
reciprocating and irregular, especially in late- 
ral directions: as, the ship rollx (that is, turns 
back and forth about a longitudinal axis). 
His eyen steepe, and rollynge in his heede. 
Chaucer, Pro], to C. T., 1. 201. 
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, 
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. 
Shak., M. N. D., v. i. 12. 
Twice ten tempestuous nights I rolled, resigned 
To roaring billows and the warring wind. 
Pope, Odyssey, vi. 205. 
The ship rolled and dashed, . . . now showing us the 
whole sweep of her deck, . . . now nothing but her keel. 
Dickens, David Copperfleld, Iv. 
5. To move like waves or billows; also, to 
move like a considerable body of water, as a 
river. Each particle of water in a wave revolves in a 
circle, and though this cannot be seen, there is a vague 
appearance of a wheel-like movement. 
Wave rolling after wave, where way they found, 
If steep, with torrent rapture. Milton, P. L., vii. 298. 
The rolling smoke involves the sacrifice. 
Pope, Dunciad, i. 248. 
6. To fluctuate; move tumultuously. 
What diff'rent Sorrows did within thee roll > 
Prior, Solomon, ii. 
7. To tumble or fall over and over. 
Down they fell 
By thousands, angel on archangel roll'd. 
Milton, P. L., vi. 594. 
5213 
8. To emit a deep prolonged sound, like the 
roll of a ball or the continuous beating of a 
drum. 
Near and more near the thunders roll. 
Burn*, Tarn o' Shanter. 
A rolling organ-harmony 
Swells up, and shakes and falls. 
Tennyson, Sir Galahad. 
9. To enroll one's self; be enrolled. 
He lends at legal value considerable sums, which he 
might highly increase by rolling in the public stocks. 
Steele, Spectator, No. 49. 
Papillion. Right honourable sharpers ; and Frenchmen 
from the county of York. 
Wilding. In the last list, I presume, you roll. 
Foote, The Liar, i. 1. 
10. To trill: said of certain singing birds. 
The continuous roll is possessed almost exclusively by 
the canary, and the nightingale is one of the very few 
birds that share to some degree the faculty of rolling at 
any pitch of the voice uninterruptedly. 
Appleton's Ann. Cye., 1886, p. 87. 
11. To lend itself to being coiled up in a cylin- 
drical form: as, cloth that rolls well. 12f. To 
ramble; wander abroad ; gadabout. Compare 
roil 1 . 
That ilke proverbe of Eccleslaste, 
Where he comandeth and forbedeth faste 
Man shal nat suffre his wyf go roule about e. 
Chaucer, ProL to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 663. 
These unruly rascals in their rolling disperse them- 
selves into several companies, as occasion serveth, some- 
time more and sometime less. 
llannan, Caveat for Cursetors, p. 20. 
II. trims. 1. To cause to rotate; whirl or 
wheel. 
When thou shalt speake to any man, role not to fast thyne 
eye. Babees Book (E. E. T. S.), p. 76. 
Rolling his greedy eyeballs in his head. 
Shak., Lucrece, 1. 368. 
Now heaven in all her glory shone, and rolVd 
Her motions. Milton, P. L., vii. 499. 
We have had enough of action, and of motion we, 
Roll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when the surge was 
seething free. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, Choric Song. 
2. To cause to move like a carriage- wheel; 
cause to move over a surface without sliding, 
by perpetually turning over the foremost point 
of contact: as, to roll a cask or a ball. 
Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the 
sepulchre? Mark xvi. 3. 
3. To turn over in one's thoughts; revolve; 
consider again and again. 
The yongest, which that weute unto the toun, 
Ful ofte in herte he rolleth up and doun 
The beautee of thise florins newe and bryghte. 
Chaucer, Pardoner's Tale, 1. 376. 
I came home rolling resentments in my mind, and fram- 
ing schemes of vengeance. 
Sufyt, Letter, Sept. 9, 1710. (Seager.) 
4. To wrap round and round an axis, so as to 
bring into a compact cylindrical form: as, to 
roll a piece of cloth ; to roll a sheet of paper ; 
to roll parchment ; to roll tobacco. 
As the snake, roll'd in a flowering bank, 
With shining checker'd slough, doth sting a child. 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., iii. 1. 228. 
He lies like a hedgehog roll'd up the wrong way, 
Tormenting himself with his prickles. 
Hood, Miss Kilmansegg, Her Dream. 
The bed, in the day-time, is rolled up, and placed on one 
side. E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, I. 20. 
5. To bind or infold in a bandage or wrapper; 
inwrap. 
Their Kings, whose bodies are . . . lapped in white 
skin nes, and rowled in mats. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 765. 
What time the foeman's line is broke, 
And all the war is roll'd in smoke. 
Tennyson, Two Voices. 
6. To press or level with a roller; spread out 
with a roller or rolling-pin : as, to roll a field ; 
to roll pie-crust. 
It is passed between cylinders often, and rolled. 
Cowper, Flatting Mill, 1. 3. 
7. To drive or impel forward with a sweeping, 
easy motion, as of rolling. 
And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave. 
Pope, Windsor Forest, 1. 344. 
Where Afric's sunny fountains 
Roll down their golden sand. 
Bp. Heber, Missionary Hymn. 
8. To give expression to or emit in a prolonged 
deep sound. 
They care for no understanding : it is enough if thou 
canst roll up a pair of matins, or an even-song, and mumble 
a few ceremonies. Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises, p. 243. 
Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair, 
Such splendid purpose in his eyes, 
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies, 
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, Ivi. 
9. To utter with vibration of the tongue; trill. 
roll 
Don't, like a lecturer or dramatic star, 
Try over hard to roll the British R. 
0. W. Holmes, A Rhymed Lesson. 
10. In printing, to make (paper) smooth bypass- 
ing it under calendering rollers. [Eng.] 1 1 . 
To turn over by degrees, as a whale when cut- 
ting in . At first the whale is rolled carefully and gently, 
then more quickly, as the blubber is hove up, and the head 
is cut oil at last. 
12. In drum-playing, to beat with rapid blows 
so as to produce a continuous sound Rolled 
chop. See chnpi , 2. Rolled cod, boneless cod, prepared 
by rolling several slices into parcels which are packed in 
boxes. [Trade-name.] Rolled glass. Seeglass. Roll- 
ed plating. See plate, v. J. Kolled rail. See rail'. 
= Syn. 2. Hiving, etc. See rocW, v. t. 
roll (rol), . [Early mod. E. also rowl, rowle, 
roule; < ME. rolli; = MD. rol, D. nil = MLG. rol 
= MHG. rolle, rulle,G. rollc = Sw. rnlla = Dan. 
rnlle, < OF. rolle, roele, roule, F. role (see role) 
= Pr. rolle, rotlle, rutle = Cat. rotllo = Sp. rol, a 
list, roll, rollo, a roll, record, = Pg. rolo, rol = 
It. ruolo, rullo, ruotolo, rotolo, a roll, list, < ML. 
rotulus, a roll, list, catalogue, schedule, record, 
prop, a paper or parchment rolled up (cf. vol- 
ume, ult. < L. rolvere, roll) ; cf. rotulare, roll up : 
see roll, v. The ML. rotulus, a roll, is partly 
from the verb, and not wholly identical with L. 
rotulus, also rotulti, a little wheel, from which 
the verb is derived. In the later senses direct- 
ly from the mod. verb.] 1. A cylinder formed 
by winding something round and round ; that 
which is rolled up : as, a roll of wool ; a roll of 
paper. 
The gentlemen . . . hailing theyr heades bounde aboute 
with listes and rowles of sundry coloures after the maner 
of the Turkes. 
R. Eden, tr. of Sebastian Munster (First Books on America, 
[ed. Arber, p. 14). 
Take thec a roll of a book, and write therein. 
Jer. xxxvi. 2. 
Specifically (a) A document of paper, parchment, or the 
like which is or may be rolled up ; hence, an official docu- 
ment ; a list ; a register ; a catalogue ; a record : as, a 
muster-roW ; a class-roW ; a court -roll. 
Nis nou so lutel thing of theos thet the deouel naueth 
enbrened on his rolle. Aneren Riwle, p. 344. 
I am not in the roll of common men. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iii. 1. 43. 
Then thundered forth a roll of names : 
The first was thine, unhappy James ! 
Scott, Marmion, v. 26. 
(6) A long piece of cloth, paper, or the like, usually of uni- 
form width throughout, and rolled upon either a round 
stick or a thin board, or upon itself merely, as the most con- 
venient form of making a package. .See roller, 2. (c) In 
cookery, something rolled up: as, a veal roll; a jelly roll. 
Specifically (1) A small cake of bread rolled or doubled 
on itself before baking : as, a French roll. (2) Same as 
roly-poly, 2. (d) A cylindrical twist of tobacco, (e) In 
carding, a slender, slightly compacted cylinder or sliver of 
carded wool, delivered from hand-cards or from the dofl- 
ing-cylinder of a carding-machine. Such rolls were for- 
merly much used in the hand-spinning of wool. For ma- 
chine-spinning the sliver is extended into a continuous 
roving. (J") Part of the head-dress of a woman, a rounded 
cushion or mass of hair usually laid above the forehead, 
especially in the sixteenth century. 
Antiffi, the heare of a woman that is layed over Mr 
forheade ; gentilwomen dyd lately call them their rolles. 
Elyot, ed. 1559. (HaUiweU.) 
2. A revolving cylinder employed in any man- 
ner to operate upon a material, as in forming 
metals into bars, plates, or sheets, smoothing 
the surfaces of textures, as in paper-making, 
laundering, etc., or in comminuting substances, 
as in grinding grain, crushing ores, etc. 
Where land is clotty, and a shower of rain conies that 
soaks through, use a roll to break the clots. 
Mortimer, Husbandry. 
(a) One of a pair of cylinders in a rolling-mill, between 
which metals are passed to form them into bars, plates, 
Spiral-groove Rolls. 
.-/, frame ; R, ff', intemieshed gears: r, C', spirally grooved rolls, 
having the grooves rf gradually diminishing in size from right to left, 
and driven by the gears. 
or sheets. See roUing-inill. (b) In engraving, the cylin- 
drical die of a transfurring-press. (c) In metal., one of a 
pair of hard and strong metallic cylinders between which 
