rock, a distaff. B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, ii. 1 (l. 5 from end); Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, vi. 77. Still in use in the north country, Midlands, and E. Anglia (EDD.). Icel. rokkr.
rocket, a ‘rochet’, an outer garment, a kind of cloak or mantle. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 54; a vestment of linen, usually worn by bishops and abbots, chiefly Scottish (NED). [‘With mitre sheen and rocquet white’, Sir W. Scott, Marmion, vi. 11.] O. Prov. roquet, ‘rochet, surplis’ (Levy); Norm. F. roquet, manteau court (Moisy).
rocket, a blunt-headed lance. Ld. Berners, Froissart, II. clxii. See [rochet] (2).
rockray, a line or reef of rocks. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii, l. 20 from end. Ray = F. raie, Med. L. riga (Ducange).
Roger, a goose (Cant). Harman, Caveat, p. 83; Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1 (Higgen). In both passages, Tib of the buttery is given as another cant name for the goose. See Halliwell.
roile, royle, an inferior or spiritless horse. Skelton, ed. Dyce, ii. 76; ‘That horse which tyreth like a roile’, Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene (ed. Arber, 117); ‘A timorouse royle’, Sir T. Elyot, bk. i, ch. 17 (ed. Croft, i. 178); a draught-horse of Flemish breed, ‘The Flemish roile’, Harrison, Desc. England, iii. 1 (NED.).
roile, to wander, to roam about. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Tibet); Golding, tr. Metam. iii. 55; ‘To royle abroad, divagari’, Levins, Manip.; Turbervile, Hunting (ed. 1575, p. 141). ME. roile, to roam about (Chaucer, C.T. D. 653, Lansd. MS.); roylyn or gone ydyl abowte, ‘vagor, discurro’ (Prompt. 436). See Notes to Piers Plowman, B. x. 297, p. 94.
roister, royster, a bully, a noisy reveller; ‘Dissolute swordmen and suburb roysters’, Milton, Eikonoklastes, iv; ‘Rustre, a royster, swaggerer’, Cotgrave. Still in use in Scotland and Yorks. (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Roistering).
roisting, the conduct of roisterers, blustering. Disobedient Child, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 300; boisterous, uproarious, Tr. and Cr. ii. 2. 208.
roke, to search, rummage; ‘Roking in the ashes’, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 4 (Gammer). See EDD. (s.v. Rauk, 3).