First recorded in 1875–80
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She adds: "We are on the edge of the roaring forties, we are just a small rock in the middle of the south Atlantic, so we do have some pretty extreme weather."
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2023
The roaring forties describes the area between the latitudes 40 and 50 south of the equator - notorious for strong winds.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2023
His bloated face and protruding eyes mark him as he reels about the night clubs of the roaring forties.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the voyages of the clippers, a crew of more than three dozen seasoned hands was needed to keep a vessel from disaster in the roaring forties.
From Time Magazine Archive
That the United States lived through what Professor Dunning calls "the roaring forties" without a war with England seems now little less than a miracle.
From From Isolation to Leadership, Revised A Review of American Foreign Policy by Latane, John Holladay
An example is the westerly wind belt that runs between 40 and 50 degrees latitude, known as the Roaring Forties, including the southern Indian Ocean.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 16, 2019
A knockdown in the Roaring Forties about 400 miles south of the Cape of Good Hope damaged the self-steering.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2019
During the second leg — from Cape Town, through raucous seas whipped up by rocketing winds known as the Roaring Forties, to Sydney, Australia — all the boats were savagely battered.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2016
The fleet is currently deep in the South Atlantic, midway between Brazil and their eventual destination Cape Town, in the notorious high-wind Roaring Forties.
From Reuters ● Nov. 1, 2014
The rest of that night, and for six days and nights that followed, Nat found out what men meant by the Roaring Forties of the North Atlantic.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
