Other forms: roaring, roared, roars
A roar is the deep, rolling noise a lion makes, loud enough to carry for miles and felt in the chest as much as heard. The lion roars somewhere out in the dark, and every animal at the waterhole stops moving.
People roar as well: a crowd roars when the goal goes in, a father roars up the stairs at his children, a room roars with laughter. Machines and weather take it too — a motorbike roaring past the window, the roar of a waterfall, wind roaring in the chimney, a fire roaring in the grate. It also means moving fast and noisily: the train roared through the station without stopping. And as an adjective, roaring means going extremely well, in a roaring trade and a roaring success.
1verbroarTo make a long, deep, very loud sound, as a lion does.
“The lion roared and the whole coach went quiet.”
2verbshoutTo shout something very loudly.
“The sergeant roared at them to get back in line.”
3verbcontinuous(of a crowd) To make a loud continuous noise all together.
“The stadium roared when the second goal went in.”
4nounbellowA long, deep, loud sound.
“There was a roar from the crowd outside the gates.”
5verbmoveTo move fast and with a loud deep noise.
“A lorry roared past and shook the windows.”
6verblaughTo laugh very loudly.
“The whole class roared when he said it.”
roar is a loud deep sound.
Roar goes back to Old English rārian, 'to roar, wail, lament', from Proto-Germanic *rairōną, 'to bellow', and behind that a Proto-Indo-European root *rey-, 'to shout, bellow, bark'. Like most noise words it looks like an imitation of the sound itself, which means the word has been trying to sound like a lion for several thousand years.
Proto-Indo-European
*rey- — to shout; bellow; yell; bark
Proto-Germanic
*rairōną — to bellow; roar
Proto-West Germanic
*rairōn
Old English
rārian — to roar; wail; lament
Middle English
roren
English, today
roar
From Middle English roren, raren, from Old English rārian (“to roar; wail; lament”), from Proto-West Germanic rairōn, from Proto-Germanic rairōną (“to bellow; roar”), from Proto-Indo-European rey- (“to shout; bellow; yell; bark”), perhaps of imitative of the sound origin. Cognate with stq roorje (“to roar”), German röhren (“to roar”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Everyday Verbs, A Man Called Ove, Sounds & Noises
First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word