The Collaborative International Dictionary
Roar \Roar\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Roared; p. pr. & vvb. n. Roaring.] [OE. roren, raren, AS. r[=a]rian; akin to G. r["o]hten, OHG. r?r?n. [root]112.]
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To cry with a full, loud, continued sound. Specifically:
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To bellow, or utter a deep, loud cry, as a lion or other beast.
Roaring bulls he would him make to tame.
--Spenser. -
To cry loudly, as in pain, distress, or anger.
Sole on the barren sands, the suffering chief Roared out for anguish, and indulged his grief.
--Dryden.He scorned to roar under the impressions of a finite anger.
--South.
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To make a loud, confused sound, as winds, waves, passing vehicles, a crowd of persons when shouting together, or the like.
The brazen throat of war had ceased to roar.
--Milton.How oft I crossed where carts and coaches roar.
--Gay. -
To be boisterous; to be disorderly.
It was a mad, roaring time, full of extravagance.
--Bp. Burnet. To laugh out loudly and continuously; as, the hearers roared at his jokes.
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To make a loud noise in breathing, as horses having a certain disease. See Roaring, 2.
Roaring boy, a roaring, noisy fellow; -- name given, at the latter end Queen Elizabeth's reign, to the riotous fellows who raised disturbances in the street. ``Two roaring boys of Rome, that made all split.''
--Beau. & Fl.Roaring forties (Naut.), a sailor's name for the stormy tract of ocean between 40[deg] and 50[deg] north latitude.
Roaring forties \Roar"ing for"ties\ (Naut.) The middle latitudes of the southern hemisphere. So called from the boisterous and prevailing westerly winds, which are especially strong in the South Indian Ocean up to 50[deg] S.
Wiktionary
n. The area of the earth between 40 and 50 degrees south, prone to gale-force westerly winds.
Wikipedia
The Roaring Forties are strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40 and 50 degrees. The strong west-to-east air currents are caused by the combination of air being displaced from the Equator towards the South Pole and the Earth's rotation, and there are few landmasses to serve as windbreaks.
The Roaring Forties were a major aid to ships sailing the Brouwer Route from Europe to the East Indies or Australasia during the Age of Sail, and in modern usage are favoured by yachtsmen on round-the-world voyages and competitions. The boundaries of the Roaring Forties are not consistent, and shift north or south depending on the season. Similar but stronger conditions occur in more southerly latitudes and are referred to as the Furious Fifties and Shrieking or Screaming Sixties.
Roaring Forties is an album by Peter Hammill, released on his own Fie! label in 1994. It, and the following album, X My Heart, are Hammill's most recent albums that primarily contain an organic, full-band rock style. While there are occasional tracks on later albums in this style, Hammill's principal mode has moved since this album towards a more intimate, chamber-music style.
The album also contains "A Headlong Stretch", one of Hammill's occasional long, episodic song suites (see also " A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" from Pawn Hearts and "Flight" from A Black Box).
Usage examples of "roaring forties".
Every time a big wave smacks her hull in the Roaring Forties I'll be wondering if it's a growler or a bergy bit.
For the first thousand miles of its journey, the Salvation was hurried along by the winds of the Screaming Sixties, Furious Fifties, and Roaring Forties, the eastward-flowing circumpolar current, and of course, our fleet of oceangoing tugs.
Stephen had the clearest recollection of dear old Surprise in the roaring forties.
He had become to the seamen on the Murmansk run very much what the albatross had been the previous century to sailing men, far south in the Roaring Forties: a bird of ill-omen, half feared but almost amicably accepted, and immune from destruction, though with Charlie, for a different reason.
The westerly winds out of the Roaring Forties were carrying them east.
All along that ironbound coast, rocks, and reefs, with sudden squalls down off the mountains and freak waves rolling up out of the Roaring Forties—.
She would have reduced the Roaring Forties to a whimper as she forced her way into them.
But she hadn't ridden the Roaring Forties for nothing, my old whaler.
From there, it was south of the Cape of Good Hope, through the Roaring Forties, which by all accounts deserve their name, south of Australia and then north into the fairer climes of the South Pacific.