Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 6.pdf/41

 Roaring game (The), subs. phr. (Scots').—Curling. [Burns: 'The curlers quest their roaring play.']

Roaring Meg, subs. phr. (old).—(1) A very famous piece of ordnance; whence (2) anything loud, efficient, or extraordinary.

1575. Churchyard, Chipper, 'Siege of Edenbrough Castell.' With thondryng noyes was shot of[f] Roering Meg.

1602. Middleton, Blurt. Master Constable, 11. ii. O, Cupid, grant that my blushing prove not a lintstock, and give fire too suddenly to the Roaring Meg of my desires.

1621. Burton, Anat. of Melan. A roaring meg against melancholy, to rear and revive the languishing soul.

1623. Fletcher and Rowley, Maid of the Mill, 111. ii. I'll sell my mill, and buy a Roaring Meg; I'll batter down his house.

1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. Thy name and voice, more fear'd then Guy of Warwick, Or the rough rumbling, roaring Meg of Barwicke.

1638. Whiting, Albino ana Bellama. Beates downe a fortresse like a roaring Meg.

Roast, verb. (old).—1. To ridicule; to quiz (q.v.).—Grose.

d. 1732. Atterbury, Epist. Corr., ii. 417. Bishop Atterbury's roasting lord Coningsby about the topick of being priest-ridden.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, lxxi. Who no sooner entered the room than the mistress of the house very kindly desired one of the wits present to roast the old put.

1780. Lee, Chapter of Accidents, iii. 1. But I must keep my own counsel, or my old beau of a brother will roast me to death on my system of education.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, xiii. "Let them but lay a finger on my 'Medea,' and I'll give them such a roasting as they haven't had since the days of the 'Dunciad.'"

1897. Mitford, Romance of Cape Frontier, 1. ix. Poor Allen was roasted unmercifully on the strength of it.

2. (thieves').—(a) To watch closely; to stall (q.v.). Also TO ROAST BROWN and TO get (or give) a roasting: Fr. pousser de la ficelle. Thus (old) TO SMELL OF THE ROAST = to get into prison.—B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).

1587. Mirour for Magistrates [Nares]. My souldiers were slayne fast before mine owne eyes, Or forc'd to flie, yeilde, and smell of the rost.

1879. Horsley, Jottings from Jail [Mac. Mag., xl. 504]. I see a reeler giving me a roasting, so I began to count my pieces for a jolly.

1888. Sims, Plank Bed Ballad [Referee, 12 Feb.]. A reeler was roasting ME BROWN.

Phrases.—To rule the roast = to lead, to domineer (B. E., Grose); to cry roast meat = to chatter about one's good fortune (B. E., Grose); TO MAKE ROAST MEAT FOR worms = to kill; to give ROAST MEAT AND BEAT WITH the spit = 'to do one a Curtesy, and Twit or Upbraid him with it' (B. E.); TO ROAST SNOW IN A furnace = to attempt the unnecessary or absurd. Also proverbial sayings:—'Set a fool to roast eggs, and a wise man to eat them'; 'You are in your roast meat when others are in their fod'; 'There's reason in roasting of eggs'; 'Great boast and small roast make unsavoury mouths.' Cf. Rib-roaster.

c. 1380. Debate of the Carpenters' Tools [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet, i. 85]. My mayster yet shall reule the roste.

d. 1529. Skelton, Why Come Ye not to Court. He ruleth all the roste With bragging and with boste.