Literary notes about roll (AI summary)
The word "roll" is remarkably versatile in literature, conveying a spectrum of meanings from the tangible to the metaphorical. It appears as a concrete object—a small, fine-floured roll or the last morsel of bread purchased on a journey ([1], [2])—while also describing physical motion, as in objects or people rolling along, whether thrusting a head across a room or peas tumbling on the ground ([3], [4]). In other works, "roll" paints a picture of nature’s relentless energy, evoking the heavy, continuous roll of thunder or the unstoppable progression of time ([5], [6], [7], [8]). Additionally, it marks formal processes, designating lists or registers, as seen in calls for attendance and honor rolls ([9], [10], [11]). Through these varied uses, the word encapsulates both physical movement and abstract continuity, highlighting literature’s rich capacity for layered, multi-dimensional imagery.
- bollo , m. , small roll made of fine flour.
— from Heath's Modern Language Series: The Spanish American Reader by Ernesto Nelson - I had one morsel of bread yet: the remnant of a roll I had bought in a town we passed through at noon with a stray penny—my last coin.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - And if he is the great Head, he will be at my mercy; for I will roll this head all about the room until he promises to give us what we desire.
— from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - Men have a firm step, and when they walk over the peas none of them stir, but girls trip and skip, and drag their feet, and the peas roll about."
— from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm - It was a continuous roll of heavy thunder.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - And, if any one considers how swiftly those changes and transmutations roll on, like one wave upon another, he will despise all things mortal.
— from The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius - While I strove to inspire her with tenderness, with friendship and esteem, how tranquil and undisturbed would the hours roll away!
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. Lewis - What an infinite number of generations, which the mind cannot grasp, must have succeeded each other in the long roll of years!
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - The professor was just calling the roll.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Born in 1776, he had won for himself the proudest honours of the law, and written his name high up on the roll of New York statesmen.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - But, in any case, you also have clocks in your master's rooms, so that at 6.30, I shall come and read the roll, and at ten you'll have breakfast.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao
