• (RP) IPA: /ˈɹəʊlə/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈɹoʊlɚ/

roller (plural rollers)

1. (heading) Anything that rolls.
   1. Any rotating cylindrical device that is part of a machine, especially one used to apply or reduce pressure.
   2. A person who rolls something, such as cigars or molten metal.
   3. (cricket) A large rolling device used to flatten the surface of the pitch.
   4. A cylindrical tool for applying paint or ink.
   5. An agricultural machine used for flattening land and breaking up lumps of earth.
   6. One of a set of small cylindrical tubes used to curl hair.
   7. A roller towel.
   8. A small wheel, as of a caster, a roller skate, etc.
   9. (cycling) One of a set of rolling cylinders allowing a rider to practise balance while training indoors.
   10. Any insect whose larva rolls up leaves, especially those in family Tortricidae.
   11. A dung beetle that rolls dung into balls.
   12. The cylinder snake, small ground snakes of the genus Cylindrophis.
   13. (disc golf) A throw which involves the player throwing the disc in a way that makes it roll, by that being able to travel further than if thrown in the air. Only used on holes with open areas with short or no grass.

       He threw a beautiful roller that cut the corner perfectly and stopped just outside the circle.

2. A long wide bandage used in surgery.
3. A large, wide, curling wave that falls back on itself as it breaks on a coast.
   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:

     He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend ; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruised about in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits ; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous, […].

4. (heading) A bird.
   1. A breed or variety of roller pigeon that rolls (i.e. tumbles or somersaults) backwards (compare Penson roller, Birmingham roller, tumbler).
   2. Any of various aggressive birds, of the family Coraciidae, having bright blue wings and hooked beaks.
5. A police patrol car or patrolman (rather than an unmarked police car or a detective)
6. A padded surcingle that is used on horses for training and vaulting.
7. (TV, film) A roll of titles or (especially) credits played over film or video; television or film credits.
   • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador 2007, p. 69:

     I learned a lot from watching, but the part that I should have studied harder was the roller. The names of the writers went on for ever.

8. (slang) A wheelchair user.

• Russian: ро́лик
• Spanish: rodillo

• Russian: вал

• Italian: cavallone
• Russian: буру́н

• French: rouleau
• Russian: ва́лик
• Spanish: rodillo

• German: Roller, Rollertaube, Orientalischer Roller, Orientalische Rollertaube (compare Tümmler, Tümmlertaube, Werfer, Ostpreußischer Werfer)
• Russian: ту́рман

• French: rollier
• German: Racke
• Russian: сизоворо́нка
• Spanish: carraca

roller (rollers, present participle rollering; past and past participle rollered)

1. (intransitive) To roller skate.
   • 2020, Nick Hughes, Bahama Boyz (page 138)

     One day Frankie rollered up our drive and asked me if I fancied a skate.

roller (plural rollers)

1. (slang) A Rolls-Royce car
   • 1991, Sally Wentworth: Taken on Trust, page 9:

     Only I thought private eyes were supposed to be discreet; you could hardly call yourself that when you drive a Roller.