roller

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Same as sand-roller.
• noun One who or that which rolls, especially a cylinder which turns on its axis, used for various purposes, as smoothing, crushing, and spreading out.
• noun A rolling-pin.
• noun In printing, a cylindrical rod of iron covered with a thick composition of glue and molasses, or glue, sugar, and glycerin, which takes ink on its surface by rolling on a table or against other rollers, and which deposits this ink on types when it is rolled over them.
• noun In etching, a cylinder, about three inches in diameter, covered with soft leather, and used for revarnishing an imperfectly bitten plate. The ground is applied to the roller with a palette-knife on which a little has been taken up. When the ground has, by repeated passing, been evenly spread over all parts of the roller, this is carefully passed with slight pressure over the etched plate so as to cover its surface with varnish, without allowing it to enter the furrows.
• noun In organ-building, a wooden bar with pins in the ends upon which it may be rolled or rocked, and two projecting arms, usually at some distance from each other, one of which is pulled by a tracker from the keyboards, while the other pulls a tracker attached to a valve. Rollers are primarily designed to transfer motion from side to side, but they also often change it from a horizontal to a vertical plane, or vice versa. The rollers belonging to a single keyboard are usually placed together on a common roller-board, and the entire mechanism is called a roller-board action or movement. See cut under organ.
• noun Any cylindrical tool or part of a machine serving to press, flatten, guide, etc., as the cylinders of a paper-making machine, the impression-cylinders in calico-printing, the roller-die by means of which patterns are transferred to such cylinders, etc.
• noun The barrel of a musical box or of a chime-ringing machine.
• noun That upon which something may be rolled up, as a wooden cylinder, or pasteboard rolled up, usually with a circular section.
• noun A cylindrical or spherical body upon which a heavy body can be rolled or moved along: used to lessen friction.
• noun Specifically— A cylindrical piece of wood put under a heavy stone to facilitate moving it.
• noun A wheel in a roller-skate.
• noun The wheel of a caster.
• noun Same as roller-towel. [Colloq.]
• noun A stout heavy sheave which revolves and saves a rope that passes over it from wear by friction.
• noun A go-cart for a child.
• noun That in which something may be rolled; a bandage; specifically, a long rolled bandage used in surgery. It is unrolled as it is used.
• noun In saddlery, a broad padded surcingle, serving as a girth to hold a heavy blanket in place.
• noun Along, heavy, swelling wave, such as sets in upon a coast after the subsiding of a storm.
• noun In ornithology: Any bird of the family Coraciidæ: so called from the way they roll or tumble about in flight.
• noun A kind of domestic pigeon; one of the varieties of tumblers.
• noun In herpetology, a snake of the family Tortricidæ; a shorttail.
• noun The rockfish or striped-bass, Roccus lineatus. [Maryland.]

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun One who, or that which, rolls; especially, a cylinder, sometimes grooved, of wood, stone, metal, etc., used in husbandry and the arts.
• noun A bandage; a fillet; properly, a long and broad bandage used in surgery.
• noun (Naut.) One of series of long, heavy waves which roll in upon a coast, sometimes in calm weather.
• noun A long, belt-formed towel, to be suspended on a rolling cylinder; -- called also roller towel.
• noun (Print.) A cylinder coated with a composition made principally of glue and molassess, with which forms of type are inked previously to taking an impression from them.
• noun A long cylinder on which something is rolled up.
• noun A small wheel, as of a caster, a roller skate, etc.
• noun (Zoöl.) Any insect whose larva rolls up leaves; a leaf roller. see Tortrix.
• noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of Old World picarian birds of the family Coraciadæ. The name alludes to their habit of suddenly turning over or “tumbling” in flight.
• noun (Zoöl.) Any species of small ground snakes of the family Tortricidæ.
• noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of Madagascar rollers belonging to Atelornis and allied genera. They are nocturnal birds, and feed on the ground.
• noun [Eng.] the bar in a carriage to which the traces are attached; a whiffletree.
• noun a cotton gin inn which rolls are used for separating the seeds from the fiber.
• noun See under Mill.
• noun a skate which has small wheels in the place of the metallic runner; -- designed for use in skating upon a smooth, hard surface, other than ice.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun anything that rolls
• noun any rotating cylindrical device that is part of a machine, especially one used to apply or reduce pressure
• noun cricket a heavy rolling device used to flatten the surface of the pitch
• noun a large, wide, curling wave that falls back on itself as it breaks on a coast
• noun a cylindrical tool for applying paint or ink
• noun an agricultural machine used for flattening land and breaking up lumps of earth
• noun a bread or variety of roller pigeon that rolls (i.e. tumbles or somersaults) backwards (cf. Penson roller, Birmingham roller, tumbler, tumbler pigeon, English Short Faced Tumbler, English Long Faced Tumbler)
• noun any of various aggressive birds, of the family Coraciidae, having bright blue wings and hooked beaks
• noun a car made by Rolls-Royce
• noun the police (old blues slang)
• noun a padded surcingle that is used on horses for training and vaulting
• noun TV, film A roll of titles or (especially) credits played over film or video; television or film credits.