rule the roost
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
before 1100; Middle English roost (noun), Old English hrōst; cognate with Middle Dutch roest
Related forms
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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roost (ruːst) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a place, perch, branch, etc, where birds, esp domestic fowl, rest or sleep |
| 2. | a temporary place to rest or stay |
| 3. | rule the roost See rule |
| —vb | |
| 4. | (intr) to rest or sleep on a roost |
| 5. | (intr) to settle down or stay |
| 6. | come home to roost to have unfavourable repercussions |
| [Old English hrōst; related to Old Saxon hrost loft, German Rost grid] | |
| Roost (ruːst) | |
| —n | |
| the Roost a powerful current caused by conflicting tides around the Shetland and Orkney Islands | |
| [C16: from Old Norse röst] | |
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roost
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rule the roost definition
To dominate; to be in charge: “Even though Sally has five older brothers, she still rules the roost.”
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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rule the roost
Be in charge, boss others, as in In our division the chairman's son rules the roost. This expression originated in the 15th century as rule the roast, which was either a corruption of rooster or alluded to the person who was in charge of the roast and thus ran the kitchen. In the barnyard a rooster decides which hen should roost near him. Both interpretations persisted for 200 years. Thomas Heywood (c. 1630) put it as "Her that ruled the roast in the kitchen," but Shakespeare had it in 2 Henry VI (1:1): "The new-made duke that rules the roast," which is more ambiguous. In the mid-1700s roost began to compete with roast, and in the 1900s roost displaced roast altogether. Also see run the show.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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