roller

plural rollers

1. Anything that rolls.
   1. headingAny rotating cylindrical device that is part of a machine, especially one used to apply or reduce pressure.
   2. headingA cylindrical (or approximately cylindrical) item used under a heavy object to facilitate moving it; usually several are needed.
   3. headingA person who rolls something, such as cigars or molten metal.
   4. headingA large rolling device used to flatten a grass surface; commonly in relation to a cricket pitch.
   5. headingA cylindrical tool for applying paint or ink.

      The deposit of color on the stone is transmitted to the metal by the lithographic roller the same as for paper.

      1857, Patents for Inventions: Abridgments of Specifications, page 118

      Synonyms: paint roller, rolling paint brush, rolling brush

   6. headingAn agricultural machine used for flattening land and breaking up lumps of earth.
   7. headingOne of a set of small cylindrical tubes used to curl hair.
   8. headingA roller towel.
   9. headingA small wheel, as of a caster, a roller skate, etc.

      The cable used for hauling the wagons on the incline may still be seen, but several of the guiding rollers have disappeared.

      1947 March and April, “Notes and News: The Edge Hill Light Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 116

   10. headingA rolling element inside a roller bearing: a small cylinder or sphere of metal.
   11. cyclingOne of a set of rolling cylinders allowing a rider to practise balance while training indoors.
   12. headingAny insect whose larva rolls up leaves, especially those in family Tortricidae.
   13. headingA dung beetle that rolls dung into balls.
   14. headingA cylinder snakes, small ground snakes of the genus Cylindrophis.
   15. headingA rolling pin
   16. disc golfheadingA throw which involves the player throwing the disc in a way that makes it roll, by that being able to travel further than if thrown in the air. Only used on holes with open areas with short or no grass.

       He threw a beautiful roller that cut the corner perfectly and stopped just outside the circle.

2. A long wide bandage used in surgery.
3. A large, wide, curling wave that falls back on itself as it breaks on a coast.

   Coats were tossed off and the boat’s prow began to thump harder and louder into the choppy tops of the rollers.

   1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 105

   2 more examples

   He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend ; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruised about in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits ; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous,[…].

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

   A road that runs due west from Dale passes the village church and Dale Castle, and a footpath continues to Westdale Bay, a sandy beach used by surfers when the westerlies send great rollers crashing in from the Atlantic.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 141

4. A bird.
   1. headingA breed or variety of roller pigeon that rolls (i.e. tumbles or somersaults) backwards (compare Penson roller, Birmingham roller, tumbler).
   2. headingAny of various nonpasserine birds constituting the family Coraciidae, having stocky bodies, large heads, and stout bills hooked at the tip.

      1 more example

      In such places I found a good many birds, among which were the fine cream-coloured pigeon, Carpophaga luctuosa, and the rare blue-headed roller, Coracias temmincki, which has a most discordant voice, and generally goes in pairs, flying from tree to tree, and exhibiting while at rest that all-in-a-heap appearance and jerking motion of the head and tail which are so characteristic of the great Fissirostral group to which it belongs.

      1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 333

5. A police patrol car or patrolman (rather than an unmarked police car or a detective)
6. A padded surcingle that is used on horses for training and vaulting.
7. broadcastingA roll of titles or (especially) credits played over film or video; television or film credits.

   I learned a lot from watching, but the part that I should have studied harder was the roller. The names of the writers went on for ever.

   2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 69

8. slangA wheelchair user.
9. informalslangA Rolls-Royce motorcar.
10. slangentertainmentA type break that consists of drum rolls; a drum and bass track made with such breaks.

present singular third person rollers · participle present rollering · participle past rollered · past rollered

1. intransitiveTo roller skate.

   One day Frankie rollered up our drive and asked me if I fancied a skate.

   2020, Nick Hughes, Bahama Boyz, page 138

plural Rollers

1. slangA Rolls-Royce car

   Only I thought private eyes were supposed to be discreet; you could hardly call yourself that when you drive a Roller.

   1991, Sally Wentworth, Taken on Trust, page 9