ROFL

English

Alternative forms

• ROTFL

Etymology

Calque of Chinese 笑到轆地／笑到辘地. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑɹˌoʊˌɛfˈɛl/, /ɹɒfl̩/
• Rhymes: -ɛl

Phrase

ROFL

1. (Internet slang) Initialism of rolling on the floor, laughing; used to indicate great amusement at something in a discussion group, etc.
2. (rare, dated) Initialism of ran out for lunch.

Derived terms

• roflcopter
• roflstomp

See also

• LMAO
• LOL
• ROFLMAO
• ROFLOL
• ROTFLACGU
• ROTFLAHMS
• ROTFLBTC
• ROTFLGO
• ROTFLMAO
• ROTFLOL
• ROTFLSHIWMP

 

Verb

ROFL (third-person singular simple present ROFLs, present participle ROFLing, simple past and past participle ROFLed)

1. (Internet slang) Initialism of roll on the floor, laughing; to experience great amusement at something.
   • 2007 October, Steve Hogarty, “White Gold”, in PC Zone, number 185, page 30:

     IF YOU PLAYED Boiling Point and didn’t find yourself outwardly ROFLing at the absurd number of bugs the game was drowning in, then maybe you saw the potential Deep Shadows’ free-roaming Columbian RPG had hidden in its floating-puma infested jungles.

   • 2008, Rhiannon Bury, quoting Callie, “Remotely Embodied Friendships in Female Fan Communities”, in Samantha Holland, editor, Remote Relationships in a Small World, Peter Lang, →ISBN, section 3 (Making Contact), pages 195 and 197:

     My REFs may be ROFLing⁷ while I’m definitely not. My RLFs will know the minute they see me or talk to me on the phone that I need cheering up.

     7 ROFL is an Internet acronym for “roll(ing) on the floor laughing.”

   • 2014 February 19, Stuart Dredge, “Talking Angela app: here’s what she’s really saying to your kids”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-02-19:

     It ends innocently – “Friends ROFLed and everybody at the party cheered at us. It was a cool night!” – but taken out of context with some of the questions above, it’s no surprise that parents are spooked.

   • 2015, “Julie Patch”, in Michael Martone, Bryan Furuness, editors, Winesburg, Indiana: A Fork River Anthology, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 23:

     I’d be ROFLing if it weren’t so sad, so pathetic.

Anagrams

• Rolf, flor, flor., rolf