roulette
a game of chance played at a table marked off with numbers from 1 to 36, one or two zeros, and several other sections affording the players a variety of betting opportunities, and having in the center a revolving, dishlike device (roulette wheel ) into which a small ball is spun to come to rest finally in one of the 37 or 38 compartments, indicating the winning number and its characteristics, as odd or even, red or black, and between 1 and 18 or 19 and 36.
a small wheel, especially one with sharp teeth, mounted in a handle, for making lines of marks, dots, or perforations: engravers' roulettes; a roulette for perforating sheets of postage stamps.
Philately. a row of short cuts, in which no paper is removed, made between individual stamps to permit their ready separation.
to mark, impress, or perforate with a roulette.
Origin of roulette
1Words Nearby roulette
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use roulette in a sentence
While you may not be as likely to knock this stand over, there’s no screen or edge protection so, if you drop it, you’re playing damage roulette.
The best iPad Pro cases to clothe your productivity partner | Tamara Palmer | November 8, 2021 | Popular-ScienceLet’s stop for a minute and think about our own days of playground roulette.
Yes, kids are playing Squid Game at recess. Now what? | Whit Honea | October 18, 2021 | Washington PostWithout content moderators, a visit to social media platforms could be a game of roulette, in which bad luck could leave you traumatized.
Every winter is a bit of a roulette wheel when it comes to influenza.
It shows that the Malaysian airliner may well have fallen victim to a high-altitude game of Russian roulette.
“It is like Russian roulette to use these drugs,” he told WebMd in 2010.
After finding Manning guilty of six counts of spying under the Espionage Act, however, America may be playing Russian roulette.
Questions Over Judge’s Rulings But Little Hope for Bradley Manning | Alexa O'Brien | July 31, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHe also ran roulette Records and golfed on occasion with Sammy Davis, Jr.
Jersey’s True-Life Tony Soprano: Meet the DeCavalcante Crime Family | Michael Daly | June 21, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTFor those patients, getting treated at Rose was like inadvertently playing a game of Russian roulette.
Doctor Accused of Infecting Patients With Hepatitis C Breaks Silence | Carol McKinley | February 22, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTBecause they used a heavier ball, roulette looked about the same as on Earth, and the same went for the dice games.
Fee of the Frontier | Horace Brown FyfeI found him in the act of losing his last rouble at roulette, which did not prevent our spending a very pleasant day together.
The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky | Modeste TchaikovskyNicholas Rubinstein lost all his money at roulette during the summer.
The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky | Modeste TchaikovskyOf course, at roulette, some number or zero itself is bound to come up every time, but number twenty-seven was invariably unlucky.
The Pit Town Coronet, Volume III (of 3) | Charles James WillsIt was equally easy to raise money for a roulette wheel, a cathedral or an expedition to Africa.
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine | John Fox, Jr.
British Dictionary definitions for roulette
/ (ruːˈlɛt) /
a gambling game in which a ball is dropped onto a spinning horizontal wheel divided into 37 or 38 coloured and numbered slots, with players betting on the slot into which the ball will fall
a toothed wheel for making a line of perforations
a tiny slit made by such a wheel on a sheet of stamps as an aid to tearing it apart
a curve generated by a point on one curve rolling on another
to use a roulette on (something), as in engraving, making stationery, etc
Origin of roulette
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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