Chapter River Demon to Robin Goodfellow of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

River Demon to Robin Goodfellow

River Demon or River Horse was the Kelpie of the Lowlands of Scotland.

River of Paradise St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, “the Last of the Fathers,” was so called. (1091- 1153.)

River Flowing from the Ocean Inland The stream from the Bay of Tadjoura, on the north-east coast of Africa. It empties itself into Lake Assal.

Rivers Miles in length.
   2,578, the Nile, the longest river in Africa.
   2,762, the Volga, the longest river in Europe.
   3,314, the Yang-tze-Kiang, the longest river in Asia.
   3,716, the Mississippi, the longest river in America.

Roach Sound as a roach (French, Sain comme une roche). Sound as a rock.

Road Gentlemen of the road or Knights of the road. Highwaymen. In the latter a double pun is implied. A first-class highwayman, like Robin Hood, is a “Colossus of Roads.”
   King of Roads [Rhodes]. John Loudon Macadam (1756-1836).
   The law of the road-

“The law of the road is a paradox quite,
In riding or driving along;
If you go to the left you are sure to go right.
If you go to the right you go wrong.”

Road or Roadstead, as “Yarmouth Roads,” a place where ships can ride at anchor. (French, rader, to anchor in a rade; Anglo-Saxon, rad, a road or place for riding.)

Road-agent A highwayman in the mountain districts of North America.

“Road-agent is the name applied in the mountains to a ruffian who has given up honest work in the store, in the mine, in the ranch, for the perils and profits of the highway.”- W. Hepworth Dixon: New America, i. 14.

Roads All roads lead to Rome. All efforts of thought converge in a common centre.

Roan A reddish-brown. This is the Greek eruthron or eruthraeon; whence the Latin rufum. (The Welsh have rhudd; German, roth; Anglo-Saxon, rud; our ruddy.)

Roan Barbary The famous charger of Richard II., which ate from his royal hand. (See Richard II .)

Roarer A broken-winded horse is so called from the noise it makes in breathing.

Roaring Boys or Roarers. The riotous blades of Ben Jonson's time, whose delight it was to annoy quiet folk. At one time their pranks in London were carried to an alarming extent.

“And bid them think on Jones amidst this glee,
In hope to get such roaring boys as he.”
Legend of Captain Jones (1659).

Roaring Forties (The). What seamen understand by this term is a zone of strong winds about lat. 40S., where a strong wind prevails throughout the year, from W.N.W. to E.S.E. There is a similar zone in the northern hemisphere, but the current of the wind is interrupted by the prevalence of land. The tendency, however, is from W.S.W. to E.N.E.

Roaring Game (The). So the Scotch call the game of curling.

Roaring Trade He drives a roaring trade. He does a great business; his employees are driven till all their wind is gone. Hence fast, quick. (See above.)

Roast To rule the roast. To have the chief direction; to be paramount.
    It is usually thought that “roast” in this phrase means roost, and that the reference is to a cock who decides which hen is to roost nearest to him, but the subjoined quotation favours the idea of “council.”

“John, Duke of Burgoyne, ruled the rost, and governed both King Charles ... and his whole realme.”- Hall: Union (1548).

Roasting One To give one a roasting. To banter him, to expose him to sharp words.