Definition of "roister"

roister

/ˈɹɔɪstə/

verb
third-person singular simple present roisters, present participle roistering, simple past and past participle roistered
1. (intransitive) To engage in noisy, drunken, or riotous behaviour.
  Quotations
  Then Elzevir cried out angrily, 'Silence. Are you mad, or has the liquor mastered you? Are you Revenue-men that you dare shout and roister? or contrabandiers with the lugger in the offing, and your life in your hand. You make noise enough to wake folk in Moonfleet from their beds.'
  1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934
  He loved Rick and gave the best years of his life, now to roistering with him, now to hanging on to his coat-tails.
  1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy
2. (intransitive) To walk with a swaying motion.
noun
plural roisters
1. (archaic) A roisterer.
  Quotations
  He now suspected that the grave roysters of the mountain had put a trick on him, and having dosed him with liquor, had robbed him of his gun.
  1819 June 23, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Rip Van Winkle”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., number I, New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], page 77
  The youth who had joined the roisters, was apparently about eighteen […]
  1839, The New Monthly Magazine, page 411

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