▪ I. roaring, vbl. n.
(ˈrɔərɪŋ)
Also 1–3 rarung, 1 raring, 4, 6 Sc. raryng; 4–6 roryng(e, -ing, 6 roaringe.
[f. roar v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb; the utterance of a loud deep cry or sound: a. Of animals (cf. roar v. 2).
| a 1000 in Wr.-Wülcker 192 Barritus,..ᵹeþota, rarung. c 1050 Ibid. 495 Barritus, raringe. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints l. (Catherine) 36 Þe noys, þe raryng & þe bere of noyt, & schepe & menstralsy. 1382 Wyclif Job xxxix. 3 Thei ben bowid to the frut of kinde, and beren; and roringus thei senden out. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 437/1 Rorynge, crye of beestys, rugitus, mugitus. 1552 Huloet, Bellowyng or rorynge of neate. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 94 Owre men..harde..horryble noyses and rorynges of wylde beastes. 1611 Bible Job iv. 10 The roaring of the Lyon, and the voice of the fierce Lyon. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 126 The roaring of 200 Mules and Asses. 1735 Somerville Chase ii. 492 The King of Brutes In broken Roarings breathes his last. 1785 Smellie Buffon's Nat. Hist. (1791) VI. 259 Following the tract of wild beasts,..terrified by their occasional roarings. c 1850 Arabian Nts. (Rtldg.) 325 They heard the roaring of the lion..issue from the wood. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 762 The ‘roaring’ of the otherwise silent stag at the rutting time. |
b. Of human beings (cf. roar v. 1).
| a 1240 Sawles Warde in O.E. Hom. I. 253 Biseon on hare grimfule ant grurefule nebbes, ant heren hare rarunge. c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 1120 Vp he yaf a roryng and a crye, As dooth the mooder whan the child shal dye. c 1440 York Myst. xxxi. 215 And lorde, for þer raryng he raysed hym full right. 1535 Coverdale Job iii. 25 This is the cause, that..my roaringes fall out like a water floude. 1631 Byfield Doctr. Sabb. 163 Now many in merry meetings have their singing of Catches and their roarings, as they are called. 1687 T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 72 There's such calling of names,..such roaring and screaming. 1722 De Foe Plague (Rtldg.) 103 Others..vented their Pain by incessant Roarings. 1764 Gray J.T. 16 All the town rings of his swearing and roaring! 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxi. (1856) 269, I might defy human being to hear her..without roaring. 1889 J. M. Duncan Dis. Women (ed. 4) iii. 10 The restlessness and groaning or roaring under spasmodic pain. |
c. Of inanimate things (cf. roar v. 3).
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxviii. (Bodl. MS.), Ȝif þe water is to moche, it makeþ roryng and grolling in þe wombe. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius iii. 12 b, [The river] fallyng downe vpon a rock beneth, made muche noise and roringe. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 204 The fire and cracks Of sulphurous roaring. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. x. 47 The Roaring of the Sea is most commonly obserued a shore, a little before a storme. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 333 ¶5 The Pomp of his Appearance amidst the Roarings of his Thunders. 1797–1805 S. & Ht. Lee Canterb. T. I. 352 The low and monotonous roaring of the waves. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam x. iv. 3 Like the roaring Of fire. 1869 H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 258 The sighing of the wind in the trees, or its roaring round their mountain abodes. |
† 2. Bullying, boisterous, or riotous conduct. Obs.
| 1617 Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel iv. i, You and your man shall roar him out on't—for indeed you must pay your debts so, for that's one of the main ends of roaring. 1627 [see rioting vbl. n. 1]. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. i. 153 Whilest they keep the greatest roaring, their state steals away in the greatest silence. |
| attrib. 1617 Middleton & Rowley Fair Quarrel ii. ii, What, to the roaring school? |
3. A disease of horses, causing them to make a loud noise when breathing under exertion; the act of making this noise. (Cf. roarer1 2.)
| 1823 in Crabb. 1831 Youatt Horse 160 Roaring is no unusual consequence of strangles. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 441 Sometimes roaring is occasioned by a distorted larynx produced by tight reining. 1881 Standard 29 July 5/2 Whether ‘roaring’ can be cured or not is a question upon which there is no consensus of opinion. |
▪ II. ˈroaring, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. That roars or bellows: a. Of persons or animals. Also spec. of horses (see prec. 3).
| 1382 Wyclif Ecclus. li. 4 Thou hast delyuered me..fro the rorende men. ― 1 Peter v. 8 Ȝoure aduersarie, the deuel, as a roryng lyoun goith aboute. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xxviii. (Percy Soc.) 134 Agaynst day began to nese and cry My stede Galantyse with a roryng breste. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. vi. 24 Wyld roring Buls. 1611 Bible Ps. xxii. 13 They gaped vpon me..as a rauening and a roaring Lyon. 1727 De Foe Hist. Appar. iii, Dost thou know I am a roaring lion? 1848 Thackeray Sk. & Trav. London, A Night's Pleasure i, Cox's most roomy fly,..in which he insists on putting the roaring grey horse. 1889 Yorks. Post 25 Nov. 3/5 Melbourne was a big roaring horse. |
b. Of the sea, wind, cannon, etc.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Sonorus, Flumina sonora, roaringe riuers. 1595 Spenser Epithal. 218 And let the roring Organs loudly play. 1616 J. Lane Contn. Sqr.'s T. viii. 445 So theare out flies the roringst batterie on all the towne. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 91 What volleyed from the roring guns. 17.. Ramsay Horace to Virgil 16 Thro' tempests and a rairing tide. 1784 Cowper Task v. 766 The sea With all his roaring multitude of waves. 1861 Fairbairn Iron 144 A roaring flame rushes from the mouth of the vessel. 1873 Black Pr. Thule x. 153 The mighty and roaring stream of omnibuses. |
c. roaring buckie, a sea-shell which appears to make a loud noise (imagined to be the roaring of the sea) when the opening is held close to the ear. Sc. (Cf. roary 2.)
| 1808 Jamieson s.v. Buckie, The roaring buckie, Buccinum undatum, Linn., is the common great whelk. 1854 Zoologist XII. 4428 Waved Buccine, Buccinum undatum... This and the larger species of Fusus get the provincial name of ‘roaring buckies’. 1900 Strain Elmslie's Dragnet 206 Two great branches of pure white coral and six large ‘roaring buckies’. |
2. a. Behaving or living in a noisy, riotous manner; esp. roaring boy (cf. boy n.1 6). Now only arch.
| 1584 Lyly Sappho iii. ii. 76 Whats he so swaggers in the Van? O! thats a roring Englishman. 1611 Middleton & Dekker (title), The Roaring Girle: or Moll Cutpurse. 1611 J. Davies (Heref.) Sco. Folly (Grosart) II. 44 The diuell is..nere dead while roring boyes do liue. 1658 Rowley et al. Witch of Edmonton i. ii, One of the Country roaring Lads. 1719 D'Urfey Pills III. 23 Your Roaring Boys who every one quails, Fights, Domineers, Swaggers, and rails. 1764 Foote Mayor of Garratt i, You vould meet some roaring, rare boys, i' faith. 1826 Scott Woodst. viii, The wild life of a roaring cavalier. Ibid. xx, These were the ‘roaring boys’ who met in hedge ale-houses. |
† b. transf. Befitting a ‘roarer’. Obs.
| c 1590 Marlowe Faustus viii, Keep out, for I am about a roaring piece of work. |
3. a. Of voice, sound, etc.: Extremely loud.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 43 b, The dukes angry countenaunce and roryng voyce. 1631 R. Bolton Comf. Affl. Consc. vii. (1635) 230 He breakes out oftentimes into a roring complaint of sinne. 1659 Pell Impr. Sea 76 How their roaring oaths gingle in their mouthes. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 442 With a roaring sound The rising Rivers float the nether Ground. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xlvii, I don't think we shall even have a roaring song along the street to-night. 1884 Pall Mall G. 16 Feb. 1/2 Such steps..are not forced upon us by a roaring agitation. |
b. Path. (See quot.)
| 1854 W. H. Walshe Dis. Lungs & Heart (ed. 2) 747 The quality of the systolic murmur may be..rasping, sawing, filing, or if the blood be spanæmic, roaring. |
4. a. Characterized by riotous or noisy revelry; full of din or noise. roaring days (Austral.), the time of the Australian gold-rush; also transf., hey-day; the roaring twenties, the third decade of the twentieth century (with reference to the postwar buoyancy of that period).
| a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 168 It was a mad roaring time full of extravagance. 1722 De Foe Plague (Rtldg.) 88 Revelling and roaring extravagances. 1759 Townley High Life i, We'll have a roaring Night. 1822 W. Irving Braceb. Hall vi. 49 A generation or two of hard-livers, that led a life of roaring revelry. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. viii, We can hear one another better than in the roaring street. 1879 Stevenson Trav. Cevennes (1886) 152 This roaring table d'hôte. 1897 H. Lawson Coll. Verse (1967) I. 339 But these seem dull and slow to me compared with Roaring Days. 1921 M. E. Fullerton Bark House Days (1931) xiv. 144 We loved the stories of the ‘roaring fifties’. 1930 Sat. Rev. 15 Mar. 328/1 The giants of the roaring 'twenties ought to be able to achieve glory of some sort in half as many years. 1936 ‘W. Hatfield’ Australia through Wind Screen 53 In its roaring days ‘The Duchess’ was better than many a goldmine. 1973 Times 2 Mar. 14/2 The theme [of the ball] will be the roaring twenties. 1978 Dædalus Fall 30 For those belonging to the classes of the immediate post-World War I period, the massacre of the young officers..meant that countless positions..had become vacant in all spheres of society; this led to an ephemeral but marked shift to a more youthful establishment; hence, the Roaring Twenties. |
b. the roaring game (or roaring play), the game of curling.
| [1786 Burns Vision i. i, The sun had clos'd the winter-day, The Curlers quat their roaring-play. 1790 A. Wilson Rabby's Mistake Poet. Wks. (1846) 101 Far aff the curler's roaring rink, Re-echoed loud.] 1865 Janet Hamilton Poems, Winter 103 The curlers ply the ‘roarin' play’, An' rinks are made. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 712/2 The rules..of the Caledonian Curling Club form a code which largely regulates ‘the roaring game’..all over the world. |
c. the roaring forties: see as main entry.
5. roaring drunk (Sc. roaring fou'), excessively drunk and noisy.
| 1697 Vanbrugh Provoked Wife iii. 39 Sir John will come home roaring drunk. 1790 Burns Tam o' Shanter 26 That every naig was ca'd a shoe on, The smith and thee gat roaring fou on. 1834 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 104 Just at that time came down the sergeant of marines, with three of our men whom he had picked up, roaring drunk. 1859 Farrar J. Home xx, I bet you 2 to 1..that I have him roaring drunk before a month's over. |
6. Of ailments: Causing one to cry out; extremely violent. rare.
| 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. ii. iii. (1848) 106 He that is tormented with the Gout, is apt to envy any Sick man that is exempted from that Roaring pain. 1901 Sir H. Smith Autobiog. II. xxxiii. 10 An exposure of this sort to the sun of India would probably cause a roaring fever or death. |
7. Of trade: Very brisk, highly successful.
| 1755 C. Charke Life 153 But was..fully convinced, that I should carry on a roaring Trade. 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), Roaring trade, a quick trade. 1845 Hood My Son & Heir xix, A Grazier may be losing cash, Although he drives a ‘roaring trade’. 1883 Ld. R. Gower Reminisc. I. xviii. 364 The women who sell the papers are evidently making a roaring trade. 1976 Milton Keynes Express 25 June 7/2 These attractions did a roaring trade round the perimeter of the sports hall. |
8. colloq. Boisterous, exuberant. Also as a general intensive: full-blooded, whole-hearted; unqualified, out-and-out.
| 1848 Thackeray Lett. 1 Nov., What a shame it is to go on bragging about what is after all sheer roaring good health. 1963 D. Lessing A Man & Two Women 302 If you are going to make love, what does it matter who with? Why shouldn't she simply walk into the street, pick up a man and have a roaring sexual affair with him? 1965 Listener 18 Nov. 806/1 Psychiatric treatment has not proved a roaring success. 1970 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary p. xiv, I feel..a deep, roaring faith in and love for this country. |
Hence ˈroaringly adv.
| 1842 Blackw. Mag. LII. 588 Roaringly, through the rocky cleft,..the torrent sweeps. 1862 T. Winthrop Canoe & Saddle xii, Ferdinand snored roaringly from his coiled position among the traps. 1947 Dylan Thomas Let. 1 Mar. (1966) 298, I was roaringly well, then, some minutes after, a little mewling ruin. 1980 Daily Tel. 21 July 10/3 This festival built its name in the 'fifties under Jean Vilar's direction, with Gérard Philipe as star, by staging French classics with a zest and a roaringly romantic appeal to basic theatrical values which gave birth to the rightly named Théâtre National Populaire. |