roller coaster

¹

noun

1. a small gravity railroad, especially in an amusement park, having a train with open cars that moves along a high, sharply winding trestle built with steep inclines that produce sudden, speedy plunges for thrill-seeking passengers.
2. a car or train of cars for such a railroad.
3. any phenomenon, period, or experience of persistent or violent ups and downs, as one fluctuating between prosperity and recession or elation and despair.

roller-coaster

²

[ roh-ler-koh-ster, roh-li- ]

verb (used without object)

1. to go up and down like a roller coaster; rise and fall:

   a narrow road roller-coastering around the mountain; a light boat roller-coastering over the waves.

2. to experience a period of prosperity, happiness, security, or the like, followed by a contrasting period of economic depression, despair, or the like:

   The economy was roller-coastering throughout most of the decade.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of a roller coaster.
2. resembling the progress of a ride on a roller coaster in sudden extreme changeableness.

roller coaster

noun

1. another term for big dipper

Word History and Origins

Origin of roller coaster¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Origin of roller coaster²

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

They're made to make a lot of money and to get teenagers in a kind of experience, a roller coaster ride.

From The Daily Beast

His cadence is a steady beat rather than a roller coaster, and his words sparing and simple.

From The Daily Beast

His Wednesday is going to be a roller-coaster ride from Rush Limbaugh to Fox to Laura Ingraham to who knows what.

From The Daily Beast

Some saw their donation as a ticket to a theme park roller coaster ride.

From The Daily Beast

How are you weathering that roller coaster, with each and every year the future so up in the air?

From The Daily Beast

At last news, peon “brakies” on the Nacional had been using it as a roller coaster on the mountain grades going down to Monterey.

From Project Gutenberg

They joined them in a series of mad dashes on the roller coaster.

From Project Gutenberg

The cost of all the materials for building this roller coaster did not exceed $10.

From Project Gutenberg

His wife had told him to stay off the roller coaster, but he had sneered.

From Project Gutenberg

Memory of a wild ride on a Coney Island roller coaster streaked through Dave's brain.

From Project Gutenberg