roarer

English

Etymology

roar +‎ -er

Noun

roarer (plural roarers)

1. One who roars.
2. (archaic) One of a group of young men who would carouse in taverns, then pick brawls on the street for entertainment.
3. (archaic, slang) A broken-winded horse.
   • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 23, in Middlemarch […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):

     He had never before been so much struck with the fact that this unfortunate bay was a roarer […]

Synonyms

• (young man who picks brawls): roaring boy

Derived terms

• bullroarer