roulette
Americannoun
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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 roulettewheel 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.
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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.
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Philately. a row of short cuts, in which no paper is removed, made between individual stamps to permit their ready separation.
verb (used with object)
noun
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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
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a toothed wheel for making a line of perforations
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a tiny slit made by such a wheel on a sheet of stamps as an aid to tearing it apart
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a curve generated by a point on one curve rolling on another
verb
Etymology
Origin of roulette
1725–35; < French, diminutive of rouelle wheel. See rowel
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At the time, each Southwest trip was a game of roulette.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2026
Iain Jenkins said Eljamel "played Russian roulette" with his spine during the 1999 private operation carried out while he was captain of Dundee United.
From BBC • Jan. 14, 2026
Under the same example, the roulette player would have to report $10,000 of income.
From Barron's • Dec. 27, 2025
In so doing, an old bicycle wheel may be fashioned into a roulette, or a broken chair transformed into the cabinet of a radio.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025
My mind whizzes through dozens of looks like the spinning of a roulette wheel.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
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.
