Roaring, adj. and adv. (common).—Brisk; successful; strong: see drive, humming, &c.
1831. Planche, Olympic Revels, 3. But what a roaring trade I'm driving, burn me! But I can scarcely tell which way to turn me.
1837. Marryatt, Snarleyow, xii. You've got a roaring fire, I'll bet.
1883. Referee, 20 May, 2, 4. Rain having kindly come to the rescue of managers on Whit-Monday, most theatres did a roaring trade.
Roaring-boy (-blade, -girl,
-lad, -ruffian, &c., or roarer),
subs. phr. (old).—A street bully:
late 16th and 17th centuries:
also oatmeal (q.v.) and terrible-boy
(q.v.). Also roar,
verb. = to riot; to swagger;
roaring = riotous. As adv. =
extravagantly, noisily, superbly.—B.
E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).
c. 1600. Brave English Gypsey [Collier, Roxburghe Ballads (1847), 185]. Our knockers make no noise, We are no roaring boyes.
1603. Dekker, London's Tempe. The gallant roars; roarers drink oathes and gall.
1609. Shakspeare, Tempest, i. 1. What care these roarers for the name of King?
1610. Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, v. 4. We are thy myrmidons, thy guard, thy roarers. Ibid. (1616), Widow, ii. 3. Two roaring-boys of Rome that made all split.
1611. Middleton, THE ROARING GIRL [Title]. Ibid. (1617), A Faire Quarrell, v. i. I saw a youth, a gentlemun, a roarer.
c. 1620. Court and Times James I. [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 58. The new cant word roaring boy comes up in p. 322].
1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. Virago roaring girles, that to their middle, To know what sexe they were, was halfe a riddle.
1640. Humphry Mill, Night's Search, Sect. 8, 42. Two roaring blades being on a time in drink.
1640. The Wandering Jew. "I am a man of the Sword; a Battoon Gallant, one of our Dammees, a bouncing Boy, a kicker of Bawdes, a tyrant over Puncks, a terrour to Fencers, a mewer of Playes, a jeerer of Poets, a gallon-pot-flinger; in rugged English, a Roarer."
1658. Rowley [Nares], i. 2. One of the country roaring lads; we have such, as well as the city, and as arrant rakehells as they are.
1659. Massinger, City Madam, iii. 1 know them, swaggering, suburbian roarers, Sixpenny truckers.
1664. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1st ed.), 10. A Crew of drunken roaring Ruffins.
d. 1680. Rochester, Song [Works]. Room for a bold blade of the Town That takes delight in roaring.
1697. Vanbrugh, Prov. Wife, iii. 2. We's got a' roaring fow.
1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, i. 2. We'll have a roaring night.
1791. Burns, Tam o' Shanter. That every naig was ca'd a shoe on The smith and thee gat roaring fou on.
1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, xvii. The tarnished doublet of bald velvet . . . will best suit the garb of a roaring boy.
1834. Marryat, Peter Simple, xxviii. Three of our men whom he had picked up, roaring drunk.
Roaring Buckle. See Buckle.
Roaring-forties, subs. phr. (nautical).—The
degrees of latitude
between 40° and 50° N—the most
tempestuous part of the Atlantic:
also, occasionally to the same
zone in the South Atlantic.
1883. Buchan [Ency. Brit., xvi. 146, 2 missing]. The region of the 'brave west winds,' the roaring forties of sailors.
1884. Lady Brassey, The Trades, Tropics, and 'Roaring Forties' [Title].
1893. J. A. Barry, Steve Brown's Bunyip, 165. They found the Roaring Forties quite strong enough for them.
