Roulette Idioms
Define roulette. Roulette synonyms, roulette pronunciation, roulette translation, English dictionary definition of roulette. A gambling game in which the. Promotional money used by a casino to entice new players in. For example, the £1000 Bonus From Betway. Covering a block of numbers on the roulette betting area. Note- this does not mean that the numbers are in a block on the wheel. Card Roulette is a variant that uses a standard pack of playing cards.
play Russian roulette
1. Literally, to participate in a potentially deadly game of chance involving a revolver loaded with a single bullet, in which a participant spins the cylinder so that the bullet's location is unknown, puts the barrel to their head, and pull the trigger. A university student died while apparently playing Russian roulette with other members of his fraternity.
2. By extension, to commit or participate in any reckless, foolish, and/or dangerous act or stunt, especially that in which the risk of danger or trouble is increased with the number of times one repeats it. You're playing Russian roulette every single time you get behind the wheel of a car when you've been drinking.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
play Russian roulette
COMMON If someone plays Russian roulette, they take big risks by doing something that might cause great problems or danger. Many organisations are playing Russian roulette with their greatest assets — their staff and their reputation.We're playing Russian roulette with our health, eating this rubbish. Note: If someone plays Russian roulette, they fire a gun containing only one bullet at their head without knowing whether the bullet will be released or not.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
play ˌRussian rouˈlette
take dangerous risks: The airline was accused of playing Russian roulette with the lives of their passengers. Russian roulette is a dangerous game in which a person shoots a gun at their own head. The gun only contains one bullet so the person does not know if it will fire or not.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
Russian roulette, to play
To engage in a potentially fatal undertaking. The term refers to a game popularized by Russian officers at the czar’s court in which each player in turn, using a revolver that contains just one bullet, spins the cylinder, aims at his own head, and pulls the trigger. With a six-chamber cylinder, there is one chance in six that he will kill himself. The term was transferred to other highly risky undertakings in the first half of the twentieth century. “Abusive parents are often the scarred survivors of generations of Russian roulette,” stated an article in the medical journal the Lancet (1976).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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roulette
(ro͞olĕt`)
Russian Roulette Idioms
, game of chance popular in gambling casinos, and in a simplified form elsewhere. In gambling houses the roulette wheel is set in an oblong table. Its outer area is marked off into 37 (in Europe) or 38 (in the United States) spaces, each of which has retaining walls so that a small ball may come to rest in one. The sectors, alternately red and black, are numbered 1 to 36; there is also a green (or sometimes white) 0 and in the United States an additional 00. On the table is an arrangement of red and black squares numbered in correspondence with the wheel. In addition, there are spaces for other types of bets: manque, that the winning number will be 1–18; passe, that it will be 19–36; pair, that it will be an even number; impair, that it will be odd; rouge, that it will be red; noir, that it will be black. All bets are placed against the house and are indicated by placing stakes on the layout. The croupier spins the wheel and tosses the ball onto it; its final place of rest indicates the winning bets. Many betting combinations are allowed, with varying odds and maximum stakes. Roulette dates from the late 18th cent.The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia™ Copyright © 2013, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Roulette
a game of chance using a special device in the shape of a rotating wheel with numbered slots. A small ivory ball is thrown onto the wheel and drops into one of the slots; players place bets on an individual number or group of numbers. Roulette is illegal in the USSR.
Roulette
an instrument used for crayon engraving and for finishing work on other types of engraving. A roulette consists of a curved rod having a toothed wheel at one end and a handle at the other. When moved across the surface of a metal plate, the wheel makes a series of tiny indentations.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
roulette
[rü′let
] (mathematics) The curve traced out by a point attached to a given curve that rolls without slipping along another given curve that remains fixed.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Russian Roulette Idioms
roulette
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
2.a. a toothed wheel for making a line of perforations
b. a tiny slit made by such a wheel on a sheet of stamps as an aid to tearing it apart
3. a curve generated by a point on one curve rolling on another
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
Roulette Idioms
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