Wiktionary
n. A sport based on teams of roller skaters who race round a track, jamming and blocking each other.
Wikipedia
Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction around a track. Game play consists of a series of short match ups (jams) in which both teams designate a jammer who scores points by lapping members of the opposing team. The teams attempt to hinder the opposing jammer while assisting their own jammer—in effect, playing both offense and defense simultaneously. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, nearly half of them outside the United States.
While the sport has its origins in the banked-track roller skating marathons of the 1930s, Leo Seltzer and Damon Runyon are credited with the basic evolution of the sport to its initial competitive form. Professional roller derby quickly became popular; in 1940, more than five million spectators watched in about 50 American cities. In the ensuing decades, however, it predominantly became a form of sports entertainment where the theatrical elements overshadowed the athleticism. This gratuitous showmanship largely ended with the sport's contemporary grassroots revival in the first decade of the 21st century. Although some sports entertainment qualities such as player pseudonyms and colorful uniforms were retained, scripted bouts with predetermined winners were abandoned.
Modern roller derby is an international sport dominated by all-female amateur teams, in addition to a growing number of male, unisex, and junior roller derby teams, and was (as a roller sport) under consideration for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Most modern leagues (their back-office volunteers included) share a strong "do it yourself" ethic which combines athleticism and elements from camp. As of 2014, the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), had 243 full member leagues and 114 Apprentice Leagues.
Roller Derby Skate Corp is an American manufacturer and distributor of sporting goods, specializing in quad skates, inline skates, ice hockey skates, skateboards, skating accessories, and recently, through its acquisition of 360 Inc., sporting goods for water sports including body boards, surfboards and swim products. Roller Derby sells products under the brands Roller Derby, California Advanced Sports, Pacer, Labeda and 360 Inc. It is the second-largest supplier of inline skates to the U.S. market. They have just introduced a Labeda skate that is designed for roller derby.
Roller Derby is the largest manufacturer of roller skates in the United States.
Usage examples of "roller derby".
I have watched a lot of bad acts in my time, from tag-team pro wrestling in Flomaton, Alabama, to the Roller Derby on Oakland TV and intramural softball tournaments at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois -- but I'm damned if I can remember anything as insanely fucking dull as that Third Annual International Cozumel Fishing Tournament.
On the floor near my chair were color photos of a roller derby team, a chimpanzee riding a motorcycle through a flaming hoop, and a girl in a bikini surrounded by a bunch of paraplegics holding bowling balls in their laps.
Beside the bar, he ran a pro wrestling and roller derby school, and shot low-budget porno movies in the warehouse.
But that's really not the best seduction technique to use on a roller derby queen.
I decided against the roller derby because it's a hazardous profession.
In some circles, the Mint 400 is a far, far better thing than the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby and the Lower Oakland Roller Derby Finals all rolled into one.
They launched into Raeford Road's six-lane roller derby, shouldering aside a steroidal poser-mobile and causing the owner of a brand-new Mercedes to jam on brakes to keep from marring its expensive paint job.
Claire recognized it in spite of the Summons careening around inside her skull like roller derby on fast forward.