roar
Pronunciation
  • (RP) enPR: rô, IPA: /ɹɔː/
  • (America) enPR: rôr, IPA: /ɹɔɹ/
  • (rhotic, horse-hoarse) enPR: rōr, IPA: /ɹo(ː)ɹ/
  • (nonrhotic, horse-hoarse) IPA: /ɹoə/
Verb

roar (roars, present participle roaring; past and past participle roared)

  1. (intransitive) To make a loud, deep cry, especially from pain, anger, or other strong emotion.
    • Sole on the barren sands, the suffering chief / Roared out for anguish, and indulged his grief.
  2. To laugh in a particularly loud manner.
    The audience roared at his jokes.
  3. Of animals (especially the lion), to make a loud deep noise.
    The lioness roared to scare off the hyenas.
    • Roaring bulls he would him make to tame.
  4. Generally, of inanimate objects etc., to make a loud resounding noise.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 10”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      The brazen throat of war had ceased to roar.
    • How oft I crossed where carts and coaches roar.
  5. (figuratively) To proceed vigorously.
  6. (transitive) To cry aloud; to proclaim loudly.
    • This last action will roar thy infamy.
  7. To be boisterous; to be disorderly.
    • It was a mad, roaring time, full of extravagance.
  8. To make a loud noise in breathing, as horses do when they have a certain disease.
  9. (British Yorkshire, North Midlands, informal) to cry
Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

roar (plural roars)

  1. A long, loud, deep shout, as of rage or laughter, made with the mouth wide open.
  2. The cry of the lion.
    • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
      The Winkies were not a brave people, but they had to do as they were told. So they marched away until they came near to Dorothy. Then the Lion gave a great roar and sprang towards them, and the poor Winkies were so frightened that they ran back as fast as they could.
  3. The deep cry of the bull.
  4. A loud resounding noise.
    the roar of a motorbike
    • 1944, Ernie Pyle, Brave Men, University of Nebraska Press (2001), page 107:
      "Those lovely valleys and mountains were filled throughout the day and night with the roar of heavy shooting."
  5. A show of strength or character.
Translations Translations Translations Translations


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