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Joined: Jul 2002
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stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 15 |
My husband recently used the phrase "roll it" to suggest that we replace a household item with an updated model. I'd not heard this expression before, but he claims it would be readily understood and/or used by anyone over 35 or so.
Anyone familiar with this phrase or its usage history?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear verlangen: I'm 84, and I've never heard it, and I can't find it in any of my phrase
or slang sites. It might be a regional thing. What region would have been involved?
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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similar, or a shortening I suppose, to what you do with a lease or a loan: roll it over...?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Verlangen, darned ol' eta  beat me to the only idea I had. I'm well over 35, and the thing I'd think of if I heard that with no other context, would be a joint. You write as though English is your first language, though you seem to be in Germany. I am wondering which part of the English-speaking world your huggy (hey--I meant to put "hubby", but I like this better!  ) is from; perhaps it was heard in Britain, for ex., but not here in the States.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
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hey, I'm not that ol'! though I am over 35...
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
> Anyone familiar with this phrase or its usage history?
Ah well, this is a slight variation on a few usages I know. Roll is of course a very useful verb. Certain funds can be 'rolled over' for example. Huggy's usage seems to indicate that if something is 'turned over' or 'rolled' then the situation is forced or driven forward. This use of 'to roll' as a transitive verb could also refer (figuratively) to flattening a certain something out though (like rolling dough). Either way it makes plenty of sense to me;-)
...and twice ten tempestuous nights I rolled.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd suggest that it's just a slight misuse of "Roll it" as used by television and film producers, in the sense of "Let's go", "Let's get moving".
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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As another over 35, I'd say that I'd have to hear Huggy use the phrase in context. Roll it just all by itself, as Cap Kiwi suggested is one of those phrases like it's raining in which it has no real referent, but if the it refers to the household item, then I am at a loss to come up with what I would think he meant. etaoin's suggestion would make it sound to me like he meant to keep it, possibly with some effort put into refurbishing it, but going by belligerentyouth's idea, he would mean to replace it.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Over 35 here, too: I've never heard "roll it" meaning to get rid of something or replace it. It's certainly understandable in context, but I've never heard the expression.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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member
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member
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Happily UNDER 35 and only ever heard 'roll it' from a director's standpoint or when referring to the weed (both previously mentioned).
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