roan

[ rohn ]
See synonyms for roan on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. (chiefly of horses) of the color sorrel, chestnut, or bay, sprinkled with gray or white.

  2. prepared from leather of this color.

noun
  1. a horse or other animal with a roan coat.

  2. a roan color.

  1. a soft, flexible sheepskin leather, used in bookbinding, often made to imitate morocco.

Origin of roan

1
1520–30; <Middle French <Old Spanish roano<Germanic; compare Gothic rauths red

Words Nearby roan

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use roan in a sentence

  • And "how Lem Wheeler, while out hunting that roan steer o' hisn, had heard a moanin' an' a wailin' under the bluff."

    The Shepherd of the Hills | Harold Bell Wright
  • They saw a number of ponies tied at one end of the camp, and among them they identified the piebald and the roan.

    Three Sioux Scouts | Elmer Russell Gregor
  • For fear of it he raced the tall roan furiously through the night.

    Riders of the Silences | John Frederick
  • He had to place the muzzle of the gun against the roan's temple and pull the trigger.

    Riders of the Silences | John Frederick
  • One on a big sorrel and the other on a roan with white stockings on the front feet?

    The Highgrader | William MacLeod Raine

British Dictionary definitions for roan

roan

/ (rəʊn) /


adjective
  1. (of a horse) having a bay (red roan), chestnut (strawberry roan), or black (blue roan) coat sprinkled with white hairs

noun
  1. a horse having such a coat

  2. a soft unsplit sheepskin leather with a close tough grain, used in bookbinding, etc

Origin of roan

1
C16: from Old French, from Spanish roano, probably from Gothic rauths red

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012