rock and roll

See also: Rock and Roll and rock-and-roll

English

Alternative forms

• rock-and-roll, rock'n'roll, rock 'n' roll, rock n roll, rock 'n roll, rock-n-roll, rock-'n'-roll, rock & roll

Etymology

From rock (move back and forth) + and + roll; originally a verb phrase common among African Americans, meaning "to have sexual intercourse"; it was a euphemism that appeared in song titles since at least 1914 (Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll").

As a name for a specific style of popular music from the early 1950s, popularized by disc jockey Alan Freed in reference to the euphemistic use in song titles.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɒk ən(d) ˈɹəʊl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹɑk ən(d) ˈɹoʊl/; see usage note

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

Noun

rock and roll (uncountable)

1. (music) A genre of popular music that evolved in the 1950s from a combination of rhythm and blues and country music, characterized by electric guitars, strong rhythms, and youth-oriented lyrics.
2. (dance) A style of vigorous dancing associated with this genre of music.
3. (especially attributive) An intangible feeling, philosophy, belief or allegiance relating to rock music, characterized by unbridled enthusiasm, hedonism, and cynical regard for authoritarian bodies.

   rock and roll lifestyle

   • 2015, Kim Gordon, chapter 27, in Carrie Thornton, editor, Girl in a Band, New York: Dey st., →ISBN, page 161:

     I didn’t want to just look cool, or just look rock and roll; I wanted to look more girl. Looking back, I was trying to make more of a definite statement about what my look was and how I wanted to present myself. Tomboy, but more ambiguous than tomboy, too.

4. (Cockney rhyming slang) Dole, payment by the state to the unemployed.

   I'm back on rock and roll ― I'm back on the dole.

5. (military, slang, US) The full automatic fire capability selection on a selective fire weapon.
6. (film, television) The ability to run the picture and audio back and forth in synchronization, allowing the correction of mistakes during dubbing.
   • 2004, Robert Angell, Getting Into Films & Television, page 56:

     The dubbing theatre is a viewing theatre equipped for running the picture with a great many tracks interlocked to run synchronously. Once laced up, they can be run forwards or backwards remaining in synch; when it was first introduced this system was given the name 'rock and roll'.

   • 2012, Colin Hart, Television Program Making, page 196:

     It is very rare that an entire commentary is recorded in one take. If you need to stop for some reason — the performance isn't quite right, there's a rustle of papers, etc — you can always go back on the recording and pick it up from the point at which it went wrong. This is known as rock and roll.

   • 2014, K. G. Jackson, G. B. Townsend, TV & Video Engineer's Reference Book, pages 38–7:

     An alternative method is the use of ADR (automated dialogue replacement), which consists basically of a high speed rock and roll dubbing system and a programmable locating device.

Usage notes

• When pronounced, the word "and" in this phrase, as in many others, is frequently reduced to a mere /ən/ or /n/ (i.e. pronounced "rok-an-roll" or "raw-kn-roll). When this occurs, it is often reflected in contracted spellings like rock 'n' roll (see alternative forms above).
• Rock and roll is sometimes taken to encompass a particular style of music from roughly the mid-1940s to circa 1966. It is otherwise taken to be largely synonymous with rock music, which encompasses a much wider range of more modern styles.

Derived terms

• death 'n' roll
• rock and roller
• sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll
• un-rock and roll

Translations

style of music

• Arabic: رُوك أَنْد رُول m (rok ʔand rol), رُوك أَنْد رُول m (rūk ʔand rūl)
• Belarusian: рок-н-ро́лл m (rok-n-róll)
• Bulgarian: рокендро́л m (rokendról)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 搖滾 / 摇滚 (zh) (yáogǔn)

• Czech: rock'n'roll m, rokenrol m
• Dutch: rock-'n-roll (nl) m
• Esperanto: rokenrolo
• Finnish: rock and roll (fi)
• French: rock and roll (fr) m, rock 'n' roll (fr) m
• Georgian: როკ-ენ-როლი (roḳ-en-roli)
• German: Rock and Roll m, Rock 'n' Roll m
• Greek: ροκ εντ ρολ (el) n (rok ent rol)
• Hebrew: רוק אנד רול m
• Hindi: रॉक एंड रोल (rŏk eṇḍ rol)
• Irish: rac-cheol m
• Japanese: ロックンロール (ja) (rokkunrōru)
• Korean: 로큰롤 (rokeunnol)
• Lithuanian: rokenrolas m
• Macedonian: рокенро́л m (rokenról)
• Māori: rakapioi, puoro rakapioi
• Persian: راک اند رول (râk and rol)
• Polish: rock and roll (pl) m, rock'n'roll (pl) m
• Portuguese: rock and roll (pt) m, rock (pt) m
• Romanian: rock (ro) n, rock and roll n
• Russian: рок-н-ро́лл (ru) m (rok-n-róll)
• Spanish: rocanrol (es) m, rock and roll m
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: рок-н-рол m (rok-n-rol)
• Vietnamese: lắc (vi) và (vi) lộn (vi)
• Welsh: roc a rôl m

style of vigorous dancing associated with this genre of music

• Bulgarian: рокендрол m (rokendrol)
• Macedonian: рокенро́л m (rokenról)
• Polish: rock and roll (pl) m, rock'n'roll (pl) m

Verb

rock and roll (third-person singular simple present rocks and rolls or rock and rolls, present participle rocking and rolling or rock and rolling, simple past and past participle rocked and rolled or rock and rolled)

1. (dated slang, euphemistic, 1920s, African-American Vernacular) To have sex.

   Synonyms: bang, do it; see also Thesaurus:copulate

2. To play rock and roll music.

   Synonym: rock

3. To start, commence, begin, get moving; move along with a rocking, rolling motion.

   Synonyms: initiate, open; see also Thesaurus:begin

   Does everyone know what car they're going in? Then let's rock and roll!

   • 1956 February, W. A. Tuplin, “Hot Work on a "Star"”, in Railway Magazine, page 90:

     He puts the brakes on here and there down the next four miles of curves, but then opens her out so that she rocks and rolls through Totnes at a mile a minute for a flying start on the worst bank of the whole trip, five steep miles up to Rattery Box and four not so steep past Brent up to Wrangaton.

   • 2017, Ben J. Heijdra, Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics, 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, page 484:

     Now we are ready to rock and roll.

Derived terms

• ready to rock and roll

References

• 2001. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: North America. Garland Publishing. Ellen Koskoff (Ed.). Pg. 347.

Polish

Alternative forms

• rock'n'roll

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English rock and roll.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rɔ.kɛndˈrɔl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔl
• Syllabification: rock‧-and‧-roll

Noun

rock and roll m inan

1. rock and roll (style of music)
2. rock and roll (style of vigorous dancing associated with this genre of music)

Declension

Declension of rock and roll

	singular
nominative	rock and roll
genitive	rock and rolla
dative	rock and rollowi
accusative	rock and rolla
instrumental	rock and rollem
locative	rock and rollu
vocative	rock and rollu

Derived terms

adjective

• rockandrollowy

noun

• rockandrollowiec

Further reading

• “rock and roll”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[1] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “rock and roll”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[2] (in Polish)

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• rock 'n' roll, rock 'n roll

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English rock and roll.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɔ.kẽj̃ ˈʁow/ [ˈhɔ.kẽɪ̯̃ ˈhoʊ̯]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɔ.kẽj̃ ˈʁow/ [ˈhɔ.kẽɪ̯̃ ˈhoʊ̯]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈʁɔ.kẽj̃ ˈʁow/ [ˈχɔ.kẽɪ̯̃ ˈχoʊ̯]

Noun

rock and roll m (uncountable)

1. (music) rock and roll (style of music)

   Synonym: rock

Related terms

• roqueiro

Further reading

• “rock and roll”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “rock and roll”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Noun

rock and roll n (uncountable)

1. rock and roll

Spanish

Alternative forms

• rocanrol

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌrok ˌan ˈrol/ [ˌrok ˌãn ˈrol]
• IPA^(key): /ˌrok ˌand ˈroul/ [ˌrok ˌãn̪d̪ ˈrou̯l]
• Syllabification: rock and roll

Noun

rock and roll m (uncountable)

1. rock and roll

Further reading

• “rock and roll”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025