roaring

To be extremely or triumphantly successful. For having such a limited budget, their play turned out to be a roaring success. My business was a roaring success in the 1980s and '90s, but the advent of the Internet rendered my services obsolete.

To sell something very successfully. It's been so hot lately that we've done a roaring trade in selling cold drinks.

Particularly vigorous, exciting, exhilarating, or successful. Ziplining is a rip-roaring good time! The bake sale was a rip-roaring success.

To surge into a position of success after a period of time spent performing less favorably. The team, who fell to a 30–0 disadvantage in the first 20 minutes of play, roared back in the fourth quarter The company has been roaring back into a position of superiority this year, after seeing its share of the market dwindle over the last decade.

To encourage or support someone or some group of people with raucous cheering. A noun or pronoun can be used between "roar" and "on." The stadium positively shook as 40,000 fans roared on the home team as they took to the field. We were nervous about playing in front of such a large audience, but the sound of our fans roaring us on filled us with confidence.

To call or shout something in a very loud, guttural, and prolonged cry. A noun or pronoun can be used between "roar" and "out." The crowd of protestors began roaring out demands for the political prisoner to be set free. The frustrated teacher roared the answer out with anger that the students all withdrew into stunned silence.

To be exceptionally drunk, boisterous, and loud. Do you remember last night at all? You were roaring drunk. We all got roaring drunk and went through the town singing and dancing.

very drunk. (*Also: as ~.) After his fifth cocktail, Michael was as drunk as a lord. Judy bought herself a case of beer and proceeded to get as drunk as a skunk.

to speed away, making a loud clamor. The car roared away into the night with tires screeching. The train roared away, carrying Andy to Canada.

to bellow something out loudly. Walter roared his protest out so everyone knew how he felt. Jane roared out her criticism.

Also, drunk as a fiddler or skunk ; falling-down or roaring drunk . Extremely intoxicated, as in He came home drunk as a lord. The three similes have survived numerous others. The first was considered proverbial by the mid-1600s and presumably alludes to the fact that noblemen drank more than commoners (because they could afford to). The fiddler alludes to the practice of plying musicians with alcohol (sometimes instead of pay), whereas skunk, dating from the early 1900s, was undoubtedly chosen for the rhyme. The most graphic variant alludes to someone too drunk to keep his or her balance, as in He couldn't make it up the stairs; be was falling-down drunk. And roaring drunk, alluding to being extremely noisy as well as intoxicated, was first recorded in 1697. Also see dead drunk.

Extremely drunk. Members of the nobility could afford to keep quantities of wine, beer, and liquor on hand, and as much out of envy as stating a fact, the common folk described anyone, titled or not, who had a load on by that phrase. In these more egalitarian times, “drunk as a skunk” and, less elegantly, “shit-faced drunk” have replaced “drunk as a lord.”