roll, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

roll n.

1. in sexual senses.

(a) the penis.

1833		‘Peggy’s Triumph’ in Lummy Chaunter 91: Not even the composer with thick and long roll, / True time to her movements, could keep for his soul.
1879		London Life 2 Aug. 4/2: They tell me Helen Barry is not so fond of rolls for breakfast as she used to be [...] Possibly she has found one a little too ‘crusty’ [...] old rolls usually are.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 67: Oh, what a roll you got, Joolie.

(b) (US) the vagina [abbr. jelly roll n.].

1931		Bessie Smith ‘I Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl’ 🎵 I need a little sugar in my bowl, I need a little hot dog on my roll.
1936		R. Sykes ‘Dirty Mother For You’ in Oliver Screening the Blues (1968) 234: Mama, I got a hot dog and it ain’t cold, / It’s just right for to fit your roll.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 5: She had one of the meanest rolls a man could want.

1959		‘Sheldon Lord’ Born to Be Bad 6: Around the Flagler Street docks, sex goes for one or two bucks a roll. But the roll is as likely to take place in an alley as in a bed.
1960		‘Lord & Marshall’ Girl Called Honey 10: No loose women walk the streets--this is strictly forbidden to eliminate amateur competition which would harass houses that charge five to twenty dollars for a quick roll.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

(d) (US gay) in pl., the buttocks.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.

2. a bankroll.

1837		W. Dunlap Memoirs of a Water Drinker I 65: His father took him apart, and bestowed on him a roll of hard dollars, and a lecture.
1842		C. Mathews Career of Puffer Hopkins 10: [He] engages in a whispered conversation [...] (enforced by the thrusting of a roll at the same time into the open hand of the scraggy gentleman) ‘There’s a current ten — make me a vice, will ye?’.
1860		Ashtabula Wkly Teleg. (OH) 28 Jan. 1/4: Drawing a huge roll from the pocket of his well-worn panatloons [etc.].
1868		H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 46: ‘Another man pays,’ he used to say as he saw his roll of fives swept away, and planked down another bundle.
1879		A. Pinkerton Reminiscences 199: Bill [...] arranged a ‘road roll,’ or a showy pile of bills.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 22: The man then got out his big roll and put up $100. [Ibid.] 296: I would pull out a roll that would make everybody look wild.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 83: ‘Dick sends best. Chickens has a roll.’ I wired Johnny as follows: ‘If you see a safety pin anywhere around Chickens, that roll belongs to me.’.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘From Each According to his Ability’ in Voice of the City (1915) 224: I’ve got a roll as big around as a barrel of black-eyed peas.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 321: He’ll have to strip off a few from his roll to pay for this.
1920		H.C. Witwer Kid Scanlon 306: Now we git the chance of a lifetime to grab a roll.
1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/3: His faith in tight pants as a safe deposit for his ‘roll’ was shattered for ever.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 102: He jerked off his boot. ‘Me feet ain’t really as big as this,’ he remarked. ‘I got me roll in here’.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 206: Bowl ’em over by flashing his roll.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 9: Roll of scratch: Packet of bank notes.
1936		Wodehouse ‘Uncle Fred Flits By’ in Young Men in Spats 228: ‘[Y]ou slipped her entire roll to a girl [...] who looked like something out of a beauty chorus’.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 385: I’ll turn the glass over to Mac and he’ll hand me a big roll.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 163: She stepped out [...] with her girlfriend, the nightclub owner and a greasy old man with a roll.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 10: If you can place any reliance on the buzzes flashing round this hooker [...] the Jimmie has also dropped a roll.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 6: I was sure he was carrying a big roll.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 9: I don’t see anybody with the big roll, nothing.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 23: Fat Dog whipped out his fat old Mexican wallet again, and this time pulled out his roll.
1990		R. Campbell Sweet La-La Land (1999) 126: Good-for-nothing little twats trying to clip him for his roll.
2003		J. Ellroy ‘Stephanie’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 68: I forged my dad’s last three Social Security checks. I had a roll.

3. (US) a drive.

1916

C.T. Clark diary 11 Dec. in Soldier Letters (1919) 58: Just got back from another long roll. It takes five hours to make the round trip.

4. (US black) a suit jacket.

1951		L. Hughes ‘The Trumpet Player’ in Coll. Poems (1996) 338: The Negro / With the trumpet at his lips / Whose jacket / Has a fine one-button roll.
1958		Clarence Bassett ‘Trickle Trickle’ 🎵 Ronnie please dig my clothes here, boy, / a one button roll, / well you know I’m sharp as a tack.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 162: Say deep down in the jungle in the coconut grove / lay the Signifying Monkey in his one-button roll.
1970		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 177: He wore a double-breast suit and a two-button roll.
1994		(ref. to 1955) S. Gotlieb An Inappropriate Life 🌐 I had just bought my graduation suit, a beige flannel one-button roll which I wore with a pale yellow shirt with a ‘Mr. B’ wide button-down collar and a black knit orlon tie done up in a windsor knot.

5. in drug uses.

(a) (US drugs) a roll of benzedrine tablets.

1969		Cressey & Ward Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process 812: A lot of dudes on the set will drop a roll of them reds (seconal).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 173: roll (fr narc sl) a roll of ten wrapped benzedrine tablets.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 227: Tinfoil Benzedrine. He swallowed a roll dry.

(b) (UK drugs) a small measure of hashish.

1962		K. Orvis Damned and Destroyed 36: Loaded. Full of heroin. Carrying a roll, too.
1967		Oz 2 13/3: Hash which, for a good roll, they sell at about 3/- to 6/- a joint.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 197: There are expressions related to pregnancy, menstruation, birth control, and female hygiene: [...] rack, roll (month’s supply of birth control pills).

(d) three barbiturates, as sold by a dealer.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 168: One young woman dealer [...] got prescriptions for Seconal, and sold the capsules for a street price of $5.00 a ‘roll’ (three capsules).

(e) (US campus) a tablet of MDMA.

2001

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 9: ROLL [...] Unit of the illegal substance ecstasy: ‘I knew a guy who bought a bad ROLL and became very sick.’.

(f) a rolled up note used to inhale a powdered drug; also used of a straw.

2021

Twitter 22 Aug. 🌐 Odd that Right Said Fred are so against a regulated lab created vaccine, what with their history of sharing needles for steroids and rolls for coke.

6. (UK black) a fight.

1999

(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 34: After that roll we had in the blues dance [...] I saw him on a 109 bus.

7. (US black) a way of conducting one’s life, a modus vivendi.

2009

W.D. Myers Dope Sick 103: My roll was different [to that of an addict]. I was correct and knew where I was going.

8. see roll-up n.² (1)

In compounds

fat roll (n.)

(US Und.) a substantial bank roll.

1905		Little Falls Herald (MN) 31 Mar. 3/3: How to Operate the Shell Game with Profit [...] If the ‘gee’ springs a fat roll, tip the ollie a finif to vamp until the blow off.
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 9 Feb. 21/1: The man with the fat roll is making it fatter, / Foflashr Money’s a good thing.
2014		S. Quinn Sound and Furry 23: Vannah opened her purse again, handed Bernie a fat roll. Not the fattest in my experience, but it was always nice to see a fat roll coming our way.

roll of tarpaper (n.)

(US) a black man’s penis.

1958		L. Bruce ‘How to relax your colored friends at parties’ [stand-up] I always heard that you guys, well, I heard you really got a big wang-on, like a baby’s arm with an apple in its fist. Could I see it? Aw, c’mon – let’s whip out that roll of tarpaper and see whatcha got there, Chonga.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 285: You gonna slip old Carolina a roll of tarpaper tonight, Calvin?

In phrases

drop a roll (v.)

see under drop v.⁶

flash (up) a/one’s roll (v.)

to display one’s money.

1885		McCook Trib. (NE) 8 Oct. 2/1: The old man [...] returned and ‘flashed up’ his roll.
1895		Democratic North-West (Napoleon, OH) 31 Jan. 8/1: A travelling quack who remakred as he flashed his roll, ‘that two suckers were born every time one died’.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 21: I simply had to have a roll to flash on the way home.
1910		Dly Public Ledger (Maysville, KY) 12 Feb. 1/1: ‘Man fom Maysville’ Flashed his Roll an made Old Home Darkey’s Eyes Stare Some.
1919		Bridgeport Times (CT) 28 Apr. 2/2: The soldier flahsed his roll.
1933		‘Paul Cain’ ‘One, Two, Three’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 6: The roll he’d flashed on me was gone.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 205: You make a habit of hangin’ around clip joints, and flashin’ a big roll in hot spots.
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 41: I stuffed the five dollar bill down into my pocket without flashing my roll .
1980		(con. 1950s) M. Thelwell Harder They Come 128: He resisted the impulse to flash his roll.

gambler’s roll (n.)

(US) a roll of money with a high-value note visible on the outside, hiding only small denominations.

1922		G.W. Ogden Claim Number One [e-book] With six small bills and some paper, he made up as handsome a gambler’s roll as could have been met with in all Comanche that night.
1986		R. Campbell In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 79: Whistler took out his gambler’s roll. A fifty was on top. You’d think he was carrying big money if you didn’t know the rest was ones.

pimp roll (n.)

a large roll of money.

2002

D. Demicoli A Field of Wild Flowers 117: The purse is filled with a vial of coke for the night, cigarettes in a leopard print case, twelve ribbed condoms, and a pimp-roll the size of my fist.

pop a roll (v.)

(drugs) to swallow a number of pills at one go.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 250: pop a roll Ingest three to five pills.

roll Jack Rice couldn’t jump over (n.) (also roll a cheetah couldn’t jump over, ...a greyhound..., ...a kangaroo...) [proper name of the racehorse Jack Rice, Aus. champion hurdler]

(Aus./US) a large quantity of money.

1911		T.A. Dorgan Silk Hat Harry’s Divorce Suit 9 Oct. [synd. cartoon strip] That’s funny. I had a roll that a greyhound couldn’t jump over this morning. It’s gone.
1915		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 12 June [synd. col.] A bankroll that would trip up a leaping greyhound.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 107: He may even be fortunate enough to have a roll Jack Rice couldn’t jump over. Jack Rice was a racehorse noted for his performances over hurdles.
1953		A.J. Liebling Honest Rainmaker (1991) 132: The Millionaire Kid drew from his black pocket a roll of bills a cheetah couldn’t jump over.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 37: They tell me some of these T.V. stars can earn a roll a kangaroo couldn’t jump over.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 17: Counting a stack of $50 Evel Knievel couldn’t have jumped over.

roll that would choke a mule (n.) (also bundle that would choke a cow, roll big enough to choke a bullock, ...billygoat, ...a hippopotamus, ...a horse, an army mule, ...a wolf, ...Big Mouth Annie, ...the tunnel, roll that would block the subway, roll that would choke a dog )

(Aus./US) a large quantity of money.

1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 73: ‘He has a roil o’ bills dat ’ud choke a dog’.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 13: Cherokee lugs out a roll of bills big enough to choke a cow.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Joe Dubuque’s Luck’ in Sandburrs 152: Was it a wad? D’ roll Joe gets is big enough to choke a cow.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 23: Satisfied that in a few minutes I’d have a roll big enough to choke the tunnel.
1904		Rock Is. Argus 8 Oct. 5/3: There was a roll of dollar bills that would choke a mule.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 25: Windy is there wit a bank roll that’d choke a hippopotamus.
1909		H. Green Mr. Jackson 124: He’s there with a bundle of fall money to choke a cow right now.
1910		S.F. Call 17 Feb. 11/1: He will be up on the block, with a bank roll fat enough to choke an army mule.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 52: He’s got a bundle of kale that would choke a cow.
1919		News Scimiter (Memphis, TN) 27 Mar. 12/3: He will never fight again unless he gets a roll of jack that would choke a mule.
1919		B.M. Bower Thunder Bird [e-book] Went and left me in the lurch after me helping him to a roll of kale that would choke an elephant!
1920		R.J. Brown ‘Thirty Days on the Island’ in Argosy 3 Jan. 🌐 Takin’ out a roll that would have blocked the Subway.
1920		W.C. Witwer No Base Like Home 21: He always had a roll on him which would choke a whole stable full of horses.
1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/3: He had a ‘roll’ that would choke the winner of a pie-eating competition.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 June 21/2: He was exploring the contents of a purse that was bigger than Jumbo’s ear. It. contained a roll that would choke a wolf!
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/4: A roll thick enough to choke Big Mouth Annie.
1933		R. Crane Wash Tubbs [comic strip] A roll o’ bills fitte to choke a billygoat.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 95: He’s got it all right [...] Yeah. A roll big enough to choke a bullock.
1951		Boys’ Life Oct. 12: They had a roll big enough to choke a cow.
1966		F. Kane Real Gone Guy [e-book] He always went around with a roll big enough to choke a horse.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 6: Hoe would throw down a roll that would choke a Goddamn mule.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 143: Lawrie pulled out his wallet which was thick enough to choke a hippotamus.
1990		E. Izzi Prime Roll 29: The kid, he brings out a roll of hundreds, choke a horse.
2005		E. Cashman Tyson 162: Thirty-three-year-old King lived large, always traveling by Cadillac and never without a roll thick enough to choke a racehorse.
2009		T. Kennedy More Dark Drink 108: His hand emerges with a roll of notes in fifties, large enough to choke a horse, a tall well-built horse.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

roll-around (n.)

see roll in the hay n.

roll-in (n.)

see separate entry.

rollover (n.)

see separate entry.

roll-up (n.)

see separate entries.

In phrases

get one’s roll on (v.)

to get into one’s stride, e.g. in a speech.

1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 76: I’d like to be around when Crystal baby gets a roll on.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘Gee your mate can talk though.’ ‘Yeah. He’s not bad when he gets a roll on’.

have a roll on (v.)

(UK teen) to swagger to put on airs.

1881

C.E. Pascoe Everyday Life in Public Schools n.p.: Anything approaching swagger is severely rebuked... ‘He’s got such a horrid roll on’ [F&H].

on a roll [SE roll, the roll of a dice]

(orig. US gambling) on a winning streak, enjoying a period of success, sustained activity or speech whether lit. or fig.

1979		Tucson Mag. Jan. 26/1: Now she is 26 and on a roll [OED].
1988		Ice-T ‘Radio Suckers’ 🎵 Hustlers on a roll, like they got a million.
1999		Indep. 5 June 11: When they stick to the past the Stones are certainly on a roll.
2000		F. Mac Anna Cartoon City 55: He was on a roll. This was turning into an interesting night.
2000		Indep. 5 Feb. 5: When it comes to ticket sales, the Eye is on a roll.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] Patsy was on a roll so he didn’t notice my change in posture.
2015		P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 276: ‘Excuse me, Mr Fiske, I have a question...’ ‘Not now, motherfucker, I’m on a roll’.
2019		A. Parks February’s Son 12: McCoy was on a roll.

roll in the hay (n.)

see separate entry.

slow your roll (v.)

(US black) to slow down whatever one is doing.

1990		Salt-N-Pepa ‘Negro Wit An Ego’ 🎵 Slow your roll, you don’t even know me.
1998		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 6: slow your roll – calm down.
1999		Gang Starr ‘Gotta Get Over’ 🎵 So you should slow your roll, that’s my advice to you, bro.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Ace boon coon. Slow your roll. Set it off. Shit on you.
2012		Flo Rida ‘Run’ 🎵 Slow your roll, stop actin like you don’t know.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 142: When he comes home? Slow your roll, girl.

In exclamations

go and have a roll!

go away! get lost!

1916		Truth (Melbourne) 12 Aug. 5/3: Mr. Rice (for the defendant): Didn't you tell Mrs. Sims to ‘Go and have a roll’? His Honor (puzzled); What does that mean? Mr. Rice: It has no dirty meaning. His Honor (reassured): Oh, that’s all right. Mr. Rice: It means ‘GO AND CHASE YOURSELF’.
1926		Prahran Teleg. (Vic.) 19 Feb. 6/1: Did you say, ‘Go and have a roll?’ —No. Did you say, ‘Go and have a sleep?’ — No.
1936		Narromine News NSW) 24 Dec. 2/5: ‘He told me to bag my head, to go and have a jump at myself and to go and have a roll,’ witness said. ‘I told him I wouldn't stand that at my table’.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 34: Have a roll!, go and, go to the devil!
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 192: Juvenile language is well stocked [...] with expressions inviting a person’s departure, for instance: [...] go and have a roll.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.