ˈRoaring Meg
[roaring ppl. a. and Meg1.]
† 1. a. = Mons Meg: see Meg1 b. Hence, a huge piece of ordnance. Also fig. Obs.
| 1575 Churchyard Chips, Siege Edinb. Castle 94 b, With thondryng noyes, was shot of [= off] roeryng Meg. 1598 (title), Tyros Roring Megge. Planted against the walles of Melancholy. 1637 Whiting Albino & Bellama 10 But a blunt Earle..Beates downe a Fortresse like a Roaring Meg. 1656 Trapp Comm. Job xxxvii. 2 Drowning the noise of their consciences..by ringing their greatest Bells, discharging their roaring-megs. 1700 J. Brome Trav. Eng., Scot., etc. (1707) 195 In this [sc. Edinburgh] Castle is one of the largest Canons in Great-Britain, called Roaring-Megg. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1847 R. Simpson Ann. Derry 41 In the same bastion lies roaring meg, so called from the loudness of her report during the siege of 1688–9. |
† 2. A kind of top (see quots.). Obs.—0
| 1632 Sherwood s.v. Roaring, The top called a roaring-meg, trombe. [Cf. Cotgr. (1611), Trombe, a round and hollow ball of wood, hauing a peake like a casting-top, and making a great noise when it is cast as a top.] |
3. (See quot.)
| 1811 Trans. Geol. Soc. I. 50 This structure of the clay..goes by the name of the shaggy metal, and the fresh water which makes its way through the pores has the expressive appellation of Roaring Meg. |