roulette

[ roo-let ]
See synonyms for roulette on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  1. 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),rou·let·ted, rou·let·ting.
  1. to mark, impress, or perforate with a roulette.

Origin of roulette

1
1725–35; <French, diminutive of rouelle wheel. See rowel

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

How to use roulette in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for roulette

roulette

/ (ruːˈlɛt) /


noun
  1. 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

  1. a curve generated by a point on one curve rolling on another

verb(tr)
  1. to use a roulette on (something), as in engraving, making stationery, etc

Origin of roulette

1
C18: from French, from rouelle a little wheel, from roue a wheel, from Latin rota

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