roulette en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ɹuːˈlɛt/
Etymology
Borrowed from French roulette (“roulette, little wheel”). The sense "situation with a random chance of incurring serious harm" may be abstracted from Russian roulette.
Meanings
- (uncountable) A game of chance in which a small ball is made to move round rapidly on a circle divided off into numbered (usually red and black) spaces. When the ball stops, it indicates the result of a variety of wagers permitted by the game.
-
(figuratively, uncountable) An instance of risk-taking, especially when the downside exceeds the upside (contrary to the game of roulette where only the wager is lost).
By contrast giving treatments open-label slows everything down by leading us up blind alleys while playing roulette with our patients' lives.
2020 November 2, Adam Finn quoted by Alessandra Scotto Di Santolo in Daily Expresshttps://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1354994/tony-blair-coronavirus-vaccine-coronavirus-treatment-astrazeneca-covid-19-vnThey would all rather take their chances with the existing policy-making roulette rather than follow process discipline.
2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 290:Doctors and health officials said that the WRC-TV documentary, "DPT: Vaccine Roulette," emphasized the risks of the vaccine while ignoring the dangers of the disease, which has been almost wiped out in this country.
1982 April 28, Donna Hilts, “TV Report On Vaccine Stirs Bitter Controversy”, in Washington Post:
- (countable) A small toothed wheel used by engravers to roll over a plate in order to produce rows of dots.
- (countable) A similar wheel used to roughen the surface of a plate, as in making alterations in a mezzotint.
- (countable) The locus of a point on a plane curve that rolls without slipping along another fixed plane curve.
- (countable, uncountable) Any of the small incisions on a sheet of stamps, used as an alternative to perforations.
- (countable, uncountable) A cylindrical curler for the hair.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| roulettes | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
roulettelike · Russian roulette · roulette wheel · Sturm roulette · pepper roulette · Delaunay roulette · Vatican roulette · roulette table
Relateds
Synonyms
Translations (51)
ko 룰렛 (game of chance) · ms rolet (game of chance) · it roulette (game of chance) · pl ruletka (game of chance) · uk руле́тка (game of chance) · pt roleta (game of chance) · tr rulet (game of chance) · et rulett (game of chance) · hy ռուլետկա (game of chance) · sk ruleta (game of chance) · fa رولت (game of chance) · nb rulett (game of chance) · nn rulett (game of chance) · ja ルーレット (game of chance) · de Roulette (game of chance) · lt ruletė (game of chance) · gl ruleta (game of chance) · cmn 輪盤賭 /轮盘赌 (game of chance) · ru руле́тка (game of chance) · sq ruletë (game of chance) · nl roulette (game of chance) · az ruletka (game of chance) · ar رُولِيت (game of chance) · el ρουλέτα (game of chance) · be руле́тка (game of chance) · cs ruleta (game of chance) · vi cò quay (game of chance) · fr roulette (game of chance) · ro ruletă (game of chance) · ka რულეტკა (game of chance) · fi vierintäkäyrä (locus) · hy պտուտախաղ (game of chance) · ca ruleta (game of chance) · es ruleta (game of chance) · it rulletta (locus) · lv rulete (game of chance) · th รูเล็ตต์ (game of chance) · fi ruletti (game of chance) · uz ruletka (game of chance) · hu rulett (game of chance) · he רוֹלֶטָה (game of chance) · fr roulette (locus) · tl ruleta (game of chance) · es ruleta (locus) · id rolet (game of chance) · ky рулетка (game of chance) · kk рулетка (game of chance) · bg руле́тка (game of chance) · mk руле́т (game of chance) · mr रूलेट (game of chance) · eo ruleto (game of chance)