Road, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum: also road to heaven (or paradise): see Monosyllable. Whence road-making (or road up for repairs) = menstruation. Also (2) a harlot.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., ii. 2, 182. This Doll Tearsheet should be some road.
c.1796. Burns, Merry Muses, 112.
To take to the road, verb. phr. (various).—To turn highwayman (the road also = highway robbery); footpad; beggar; tramp; or commercial. Whence road-agent, gentleman (or knight) of the road = (1) a highwayman, and (2) a commercial traveller.
1704. [Ashton, Social Life, &c., 11. 242]. There is always some little Trifle given to Prisoners, they call Garnish; we of the road are above it.
1730. Swift, Capt. Creichton [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 162. Among the verbs are . . . go upon the road (as a highwayman) . . .].
1749. Smollett, Gil Bias [Routledge], 13. I do not think you are fool enough to make any bones about consorting with gentlemen of the road.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Squatters, 15. The highway robber—road-agent, he is quaintly called.
1893. Standard, 29 Jan., 2. Now suppose we are on the road . . . and we meet a josser policeman.
1895. Marriott-Watson [New Review, July, 8]. But if a gentleman of the road must be hindered by the impudent accidents of the weather, he had best . . . settle down with empty pockets afore a mercer's counter.
Roaf, adj. (back slang).—Four. Hence Roaf-yanneps = fourpence; Roaf-gen = four shillings.
Roach-and-dace, subs. phr. (rhyming).—The face: see Dial.
Roadster, subs. (hunting).—A person who prefers the road to cross country riding.
1885. Field, 4 Ap. Once in a way the roadsters and shirkers are distinctly favoured.
Roarer, subs. (common).—Anything especially loud: e.g. (1) = a broken-winded horse (Grose); (2) a pushing newsvendor; (3) a stump-orator. Hence roar = (1) to breathe hard: of horses; (2) to rant (q.v.); roaring = the disease in horses causing broken wind.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 144. The Roarer . . . has no other qualifications for a champion of controversy than a hardened front and a strong voice.
1837. Peake, Quarter to Nine, 1. His horse is neither a crib biter nor a roarer.
d.1841. Hook, Man of Many Friends. His stalls at Melton inhabited by slugs and roarers.
1841. Thackeray, Sketches, 'A Night's Pleasure.' Cox's most roomy fly . . . in which he insists on putting the roaring gray horse.
1847. Robb, Traits of Squatter Life, 64. Ben was an old Mississip' roarer.
1850. Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, viii. Tom's a roarer when there's any thumping or fighting to be done.
1865. Evening Citizen, 7 Aug. One of a class of men known as roarers went round with a few evening papers which he announced to be "extraordinary editions."
1872. Figaro, 30 Nov. Greeley's too great a roarer, and depended too much on the stump.
1872. Eliot, Middlemarch, xxiii. The horse was a penny trumpet to that roarer of yours.
1883. D. Telegraph, 5 Jan., 2, 6. Prosecutor, after paying for the mare, discovered her to be a roarer.
Roaratorio, subs. (old).—An oratorio.—Grose (1785).
