Dictionary

rolling stone en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From the proverb a rolling stone gathers no moss.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) A person who moves around a lot and never settles down; a vagrant.
   • I'm sorry; I'm a bit of a rolling stone, I suppose. When Darrish came back to Netherhempsfield my job was done there. I felt uncommonly restless. 1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
   • How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone? 1965, Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”, in Highway 61 Revisited:
   • Before that they had been a good deal on the move, trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling stones that keep going round after a soft job. 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá:
2. (slang) A womanizer.
   • Papa was a rolling stone Wherever he laid his hat was his home And when he died, all he left us was a loan 1972, Barrett Strong, Norman Whitfield, “Papa Was a Rollin' Stone”:
3. A geological phenomenon where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without animal or human intervention.
4. A meteoroid.

Forms

Relateds

a rolling stone gathers no moss

Translations (14)

es perdedor (person who moves around and never settles down) · es trotamundos (person who moves around and never settles down) · fr bourlingueur (person who moves around and never settles down) · bg скитник (person who moves around and never settles down) · pt ludâmbulo (person who moves around and never settles down) · es vagabunda (person who moves around and never settles down) · es bala perdida (person who moves around and never settles down) · de Rumtreiber (person who moves around and never settles down) · fr clochard (person who moves around and never settles down) · de Herumtreiber (person who moves around and never settles down) · mi waewae kura (person who moves around and never settles down) · fr clocharde (person who moves around and never settles down) · es vagabundo (person who moves around and never settles down) · es perdedora (person who moves around and never settles down)