roarer n.
1. a riotous hooligan, a roisterer; an outstanding performer [SE roar, to riot, to behave in a boisterous manner; Griffiths, Chronicles of Newgate (1884), quotes an indictment of 1311 and adds that: ‘The term “roarer” and “roaring boy”, signifying a riotous person, was in use in Shakespeare’s day, and still survives in slang.’].
![]() | Lazarillo II (1672) R5: Canil was dressed like a Roarer [OED]. | |
![]() | Philaster V iv: We are thy myrmidons, thy guard, thy roarers. | |
![]() | A Fair Quarrel V i: I am a youth, a gentleman, a roarer. | |
![]() | Northern Lasse V viii: I will change you most confus’d Roarer, into an accomplisht Knight. | |
![]() | Faire Maid of the West Pt I II i: I am Roughman, The onely approved gallant of these parts, A man of whom the Roarers stand in awe. | |
![]() | London and the Countrey Carbonadoed 67: Paris-Garden [...] the swaggering Roarer, the cunning Cheater, the rotten Bawd, the swearing Drunkard, and the bloudy Butcher haue their Rendeuouz here. | |
![]() | The Wandering Jew 49: I am a man of the Sword; a Battoon Gallant, one of our Dammees, a bouncing Boy, a kicker of Bawdes, a tyrant over Puncks, a terrour to Fencers, a mewer of Playes, a jeerer of Poets, a gallon-pot-slinger; in rugged English, a Roarer. | |
![]() | Widdow I ii: Your Hospitall for your lame creeping Souldier, Your Baud for your mangled Rorer. | |
![]() | ‘Dialogue Concerning Hair’ in Westminster Drolleries (1875) 78: Ask me no more why Roarers wear Their hair extant below their ear. | |
![]() | Scots Mag. 1 May 26/1: There are the Whinners [sic], the Groaners, the Sobbers and the Roarers . | |
![]() | Scots Mag. 1 Jan. n.p.: The roarers rend the roof with loud applause [...] drinking won the cause. | |
![]() | Drunkard’s Looking Glass (1929) 77: May-be I an’t a Roarer! | |
![]() | Mass. Spy 10 Jan. The Albany beau drinks brandy and talks politics, and is in fact what he styles himself, ‘a real roarer’. | |
![]() | Bashful Man II iv: Why, because she’s a roarer (Aurora) So, ya, hip! then dash along. | |
![]() | Westward Ho! II 97: I’ll be shot if he don’t talk more like common sense than many roarers I have heard make speeches in court. | |
![]() | Nat. Standard of Lit. 11 Jan. 31/1: Here we have it, ‘on a large scale,’ — a roarer from the Salt Licks, chock-full of fun and fight, fisting and feeling, frolic and friendliness. | |
![]() | ‘Jim Crow, from Kentucky’ in Jim Crow’s Song-Book 13: Oh, I’m a roarer onde fiddle, an’ down in old Virginny, / Dey say I play de scientific, like Massa Paganini. | |
![]() | Pickings from N.O. Picayune (1847) 86: He’s death on catgut [...] he’s a perfect roarer. | |
![]() | Paul Pry 4 Dec. n.p.: We advise Bill P—e (the roarer) to pay his debts, and support his wife and child. | |
![]() | (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor III 55/2: I’m a roarer on the fiddle. | |
![]() | Chronicles of Newgate 18: He was furthermore indicted ‘in Tower Ward for being a cruiser and night-walker against the peace, as also for being a common roarer’. | |
![]() | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 July 2/4: A roughly dressed man of 40. who told passers by that he was Lewis Lessor, a ‘roarer’ from Gall City, Neb . |
2. a broken-down horse [the sound of its breathing].
![]() | Derby Mercury 3 July 4/1: The jockey [...] swore the Horse was not worth a shilling; for he was a Roarer. | |
![]() | Kentish Gaz. 6 July 2/2: Mr Colman of the Veterinary Coollege [...] pronounced him to be what is termed a Roarer. | |
![]() | Lex. Balatronicum. | |
![]() | Life in Paris 115: He [...] knew by the first boxing of his trotters when a roarer had been fluffed for the purpose of sale. | |
![]() | Bk of Sports 60: Contesting every mile of the road with [...] the roarers, the gibs, the limpers (only fit for the dogs). | |
![]() | Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 3/2: One on em's a roarer, the other a piper, and tother’s got a seedy toe. | |
![]() | ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 22 June 3/3: [of a human] Langlands haz berried abuv six hundred ov ther Epsom people, and I’m thinkin it’ll be hiz turne soon, for he’s beginnin to be a bit ov a ‘roarer’. | |
![]() | Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 167: Calcott’s roarer roared as surely roarer never roared before. | |
, | ![]() | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
![]() | Unsentimental Journeys 197: ‘Kickers,’ ‘roarers,’ ‘jibbers;’ vizens of fierce blood, and who could do anything but behave themselves. | |
![]() | Middlemarch II 21: What the hell! the horse was a penny trumpet to that roarer of yours. | |
![]() | ‘’Arry on Marriage’ in Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: But the ruck is no place for a racer as hasn’t yet parted with pace, / Ain’t aged, nor yet turned a roarer. | |
![]() | Aus. Sl. Dict. 67: Roarer, a broken-winded horse, often termed ‘talking’ by turfites. | |
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 11/2: They applied for temporary leave in order that they might offer their services in the war, and the Department didn’t know whether any particular candidate was spavined, or a confirmed roarer, or gone in the feet, or otherwise ineligible. | |
![]() | Sporting Times 15 Feb. 1/3: But the cab-horse was a roarer, and the slowest of blood-stock, / And the fare said to the cabby, ‘That’s a musical old crock!’. | ‘When They Sigh’|
![]() | Dew & Mildew 385: Beastly going — and the hunt lost Major Fatty Pomperton (seventeen stun) and his cast-for-age roarer. | |
![]() | In the reign of Rothstein 102: [He] would have been one of the greatest sprinters of all time [...] if he hadn’t suffered from a wind affliction. He was what is called a roarer. | |
![]() | in Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 22 Mar. 14/4: A wind-broken horse is a roarer or a blower. |
3. in fig. senses.
(a) (US) something superlatively good.
![]() | Casket (Philadelphia, PA) Mar. 104/1: The Albany beau [...] drinks brandy and talks politics, swears at the servants, and quarrels with his landlord and is in fact what he styles himself, ‘a real roarer’ . | |
![]() | Snarleyyow I 109: Let’s have the roarer by way of a finish—what d’ye say, my hearties? | |
![]() | High Life in N.Y. I 41: Go it greenhorn – tip us a speech, a rale downright roarer! | |
![]() | Uncle Tom’s Cabin 57: Tom’s a roarer when there’s any thumping or fighting to be done. | |
![]() | Black-Eyed Beauty 42: Matty had a new dress, ‘loads’ of jewelry, and a bonnet that was a roarer. | |
![]() | Oldtown Folks 117: She was spoken of with applause under such titles as ‘a staver,’ ‘a pealer,’ ‘a roarer to work’. | |
![]() | Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 9 Dec. 3/3: It [i.e. a book] is a roarer and its illustrations will take the cake. |
(b) someone or something notably large.
![]() | N.Y. Clipper 2 July 1/2: ‘By jing, Ma, I’m most as big as a horse [...] Pa says I’m a roarer so I shall go out’. | |
![]() | Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 134/2: Thau mun ’a bin kranky to bring tu sicth roarers [i.e. outsize bags] as thees. |
4. (US) a noisy argument.
![]() | Man with the Golden Arm 32: Schwabatski’s ears had long ago tuned out the sort of roarer that the dealer and his Sophie sometimes put on. |
5. a riotous good time.
![]() | Und. Nights 180: Off they went on a monumental roarer, and when, a fortnight later, we met up in Sammy’s Spieler, they were all practically skint. |