roister-doister

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

After Ralph Roister Doister, a 16th-century comic play by Nicholas Udall. See roister (“to engage in riotous behaviour”).

Noun[edit]

roister-doister (plural roister-doisters)

  1. (archaic, derogatory) A swaggering buffoon; a foolish braggart.
    • 1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierces Supererogation:
      A very artificiall beginning, to moove attention or to procure good-liking in the reader, unlesse he wrote onely to roister-doisters, and hacksters, or at least to jesters, and vices.
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