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rickroll

verb
/ˈɹɪkɹəʊl/UK/ˈɹɪkˌɹoʊl/US

Etymology

The verb is a blend of Rick + duckroll, combining the name of the British pop singer and songwriter Rick Astley (born 1966) with a reference to the duckroll prank on the website 4chan, in which users tricked into clicking on a hyperlink were led to an image of a duck on wheels. The word was coined by the American YouTuber Shawn Cotter (born 1987) who, under the handle “cotter548”, uploaded the music video of Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) to the online video-sharing service YouTube and then posted messages on 4chan on May 15, 2007 ostensibly with links to a trailer for the forthcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV. People who clicked on the links instead saw the Astley video with the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” scrolling across the screen. The noun is derived from the verb.

  1. derived from rollāre
  2. derived from rotula — “a little wheel”
  3. derived from rotulāre — “to roll; to revolve”
  4. derived from roller
  5. inherited from rollen
  6. compounded as duckroll — “duck + roll”
  7. compounded as rickroll — “Rick + duckroll”

Definitions

  1. To mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR…

    To mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".

    • I try not to get rickrolled by sketchy YouTube links, but sometimes you let your guard down.
    • Once you start rickrolling people, and more importantly get a reputation for it, you're heading towards being the Zimbabwean dollar in the link economy: it doesn't matter how many you offer, people just aren't going to buy them.

  2. To surprise or trick (someone) into hearing this song.

    • The DJ rickrolled the whole audience by suddenly playing Rick Astley’s hit song.
    • In 2008, Astley proved he was a good sport about the joke, interrupting a song on the float for "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" to Rickroll the parade.

  3. To cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method, such…

    To cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method, such as through steganography, sheet music, or by inserting the lyrics into an unrelated context.

    • She inserted the lyrics of “Never Gonna Give You Up” into her speech so casually that most listeners didn’t even realize they’d been rickrolled.
    • For their latest hack, students decided to RickRoll the Dome in the nerdiest way possible—by wrapping the first eight notes of the now infamous pop song around it's exterior.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. An act of or attempt at rickrolling.

      • You have to check out this link. Not a rickroll.

    2. Alternative letter-case form of rickroll.

      • In 2008, Astley proved he was a good sport about the joke, interrupting a song on the float for "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" to Rickroll the parade.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for rickroll. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA