ROLLER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does roller mean? 

• ROLLER (noun)
  The noun ROLLER has 7 senses:

1. a grounder that rolls along the infield

2. a long heavy sea wave as it advances towards the shore

3. a small wheel without spokes (as on a roller skate)

4. a cylinder that revolves

5. a mechanical device consisting of a cylindrical tube around which the hair is wound to curl it

6. Old World bird that tumbles or rolls in flight; related to kingfishers

7. pigeon that executes backward somersaults in flight or on the ground

  Familiarity information: ROLLER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ROLLER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A grounder that rolls along the infield

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("roller" is a kind of...):

ground ball; groundball; grounder; hopper ((baseball) a hit that travels along the ground)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A long heavy sea wave as it advances towards the shore

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

roll; roller; rolling wave

Hypernyms ("roller" is a kind of...):

moving ridge; wave (one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water))

Derivation:

roll (move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A small wheel without spokes (as on a roller skate)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("roller" is a kind of...):

wheel (a simple machine consisting of a circular frame with spokes (or a solid disc) that can rotate on a shaft or axle (as in vehicles or other machines))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "roller"):

caster; castor (a pivoting roller attached to the bottom of furniture or trucks or portable machines to make them movable)

Holonyms ("roller" is a part of...):

roller skate (a shoe with pairs of rollers fixed to the sole)

Derivation:

roll (move by turning over or rotating)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A cylinder that revolves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("roller" is a kind of...):

cylinder (a solid bounded by a cylindrical surface and two parallel planes (the bases))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "roller"):

garden roller (heavy cast-iron cylinder used to flatten lawns)

paint roller (a roller that has an absorbent surface used for spreading paint)

platen (the roller on a typewriter against which the keys strike)

sprocket (roller that has teeth on the rims to pull film or paper through)

trundle (small wheel or roller)

Holonyms ("roller" is a part of...):

roller blind (a window shade that rolls up out of the way)

Derivation:

roll (move by turning over or rotating)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A mechanical device consisting of a cylindrical tube around which the hair is wound to curl it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

crimper; curler; hair curler; roller

Context example:

a woman with her head full of curlers is not a pretty sight

Hypernyms ("roller" is a kind of...):

mechanical device (mechanism consisting of a device that works on mechanical principles)

Derivation:

roll (arrange or or coil around)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Old World bird that tumbles or rolls in flight; related to kingfishers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("roller" is a kind of...):

coraciiform bird (chiefly short-legged arboreal nonpasserine birds that nest in holes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "roller"):

Coracias garrulus; European roller (common European blue-and-green roller with a reddish-brown back)

ground roller (Madagascan roller with terrestrial and crepuscular habits that feeds on e.g. insects and worms)

Holonyms ("roller" is a member of...):

Coraciidae; family Coraciidae (rollers)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Pigeon that executes backward somersaults in flight or on the ground

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

roller; tumbler; tumbler pigeon

Hypernyms ("roller" is a kind of...):

domestic pigeon (domesticated pigeon raised for sport or food)

 Context examples 

Techniques using equipment such as a hollow fiber apparatus or roller bottles for high volume maintenance or growth of animal, plant, or insect cells in vitro.

(Biotechnology, Mass Cell Culture, NCI Thesaurus)

Two vague shadows in the offing showed where the galeasses rolled and tossed upon the great Atlantic rollers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The act of forming granules by mechanically applying pressure by rollers to form a compact that is subsequently milled and screened resulting in dry granules.

(Dry Roller Compaction Granulation, NCI Thesaurus)

A pivoting roller or wheel designed to attach to an object to make it movable.

(Caster Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

Meg's eyes kept filling in spite of herself, Jo was obliged to hide her face in the kitchen roller more than once, and the little girls wore a grave, troubled expression, as if sorrow was a new experience to them.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I don't know how long I may live, or how soon I may die; but I know that if I was capsized, any night, in a gale of wind in Yarmouth Roads here, and was to see the town-lights shining for the last time over the rollers as I couldn't make no head against, I could go down quieter for thinking There's a man ashore there, iron-true to my little Em'ly, God bless her, and no wrong can touch my Em'ly while so be as that man lives.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

First, moving with all care, I gradually baled out the coracle with my sea-cap; then, getting my eye once more above the gunwale, I set myself to study how it was she managed to slip so quietly through the rollers.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Our boat lay, rising and falling, upon the long, smooth rollers, and Evans and I, who were the most educated of the party, were sitting in the sheets working out our position and planning what coast we should make for.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The sun might blaze overhead, the air be without a breath, the surface smooth and blue, but still these great rollers would be running along all the external coast, thundering and thundering by day and night; and I scarce believe there is one spot in the island where a man would be out of earshot of their noise.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)