▪ I. roister, n.1 Now arch.
(ˈrɔɪstə(r))
Also 7–9 royster.
[ad. F. rustre († ruistre), ‘a ruffin, royster, hackster, swaggerer’ (Cotgr.), var., with excrescent r, of ruste:—L. rustic-um rustic a.]
1. A swaggering or blustering bully; a riotous fellow; a rude or noisy reveller.
Very common c 1550–1700; now usually roisterer.
| 1551 T. Wilson Logike L vij b, Yf slaughter be not to be borne..these roisters, and fighters, are not to be suffered to go vnpunished. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 97/2 We must not play y⊇ iollie roysters, we must not spred abroad our wings. 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 446 Such roysters and rake-shames as Mars is manned with. 1649 Milton Eikon. iv, His adherents, consisting most of dissolute Swordmen and Suburb roysters, hardly amounted to one ragged regiment. 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 74 Why, how now, bully Royster, what's the meaning of this outrage in the face of Iustice? 1753–4 Richardson Grandison (1781) VI. 269 Mr. Greville is a roister. 1797 Brydges Hom. Trav. II. 410 These roysters batter The walls and gates with dreadful clatter. 1820 W. Irving Sk. Bk. I. 75 He now suspected that the grave roysters of the mountain had put a trick upon him. 1870 Emerson Soc. & Solit. Wks. (Bohn) III. 26 If new topics are started, graver and higher, these roisters recede. |
| attrib. and Comb. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 188 Busie fault finder..is roister like ruffen. 1611 Cotgr., Rustrement, royster-like; sawcily. 1653 Urquhart Rabelais ii. xiv. (1737) II. 113, I..with my cords tied him royster-like both hand and foot. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies i. vii. 24 The Moon..doth not so much as look as if she liked such Roister-company. |
b. dial. A romp.
| 1790– in Eng. Dial. Dict. |
2. ‘A hound that opens on a false scent.’
| 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. T. (ed. 3). |
▪ II. ˈroister, n.2 rare—1.
[f. the vb.]
The act of roistering.
| 1860 Cornh. Mag. Sept. 359 Some beau who had been on the roister all night. |
▪ III. ˈroister, v.
Also royster.
[f. roister n.1]
= roist v.
| 1582 [see roistering ppl. a. 1]. 1663 J. H. Hist. O. Cromwell ii. 5 He was presently removed..to Lincoln's Inne, where he might with less imputation..royster it out. 1796 [see roistering ppl. a. 1]. 1850 Struthers Poet. Wks. II. 241 Who will may strut philosophizing, And, in his frenzied furor, royster. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xvi, He might have..roystered it in taverns with Marlowe. 1893 Baring-Gould Cheap Jack Zita I. 118 Acquaintances who had roistered or dealt with him. |
| transf. 1879 Lowell Poet. Wks. 371 The wind is roistering out of doors. |