Adjective: "boisterous, rowdy, saucy, dissipated, or risqué"
edit| 1864 1898 1899 | 1932 1972 1996 | 2007 | |||||
| ME « | 15th c. | 16th c. | 17th c. | 18th c. | 19th c. | 20th c. | 21st c. |
- c. 1864, Alfred Peck Stevens, “The Chickaleary Cove”, in Farmer, John Stephen, editor, Musa Pedestris[1], published 1896, page 161:
- I have a rorty gal, also a knowing pal, / And merrily together we jog on, / I doesn't care a flatch, as long as I've a tach, / Some pannum for my chest, and a tog on.
- 1898, Robert Smythe Hichens, The Londoners, page 280:
- "Tell us a good story, Rodney — one of your rorty ones." / Mr. Rodney shrivelled. / "I fear," he murmured — "I fear I am scarcely in the — er — rorty vein to-night."
- 1899, Richard Whiteing, chapter IX, in No. 5 John Street[2], page 95:
- She is Boadicea, skipping centuries of time—Boadicea, strong of her hands, and usually not a bit too clean of them, splendid in reasonless passion, decidedly foul-mouthed—no ‘British warrior queen’ of nursery recitation, but a right-down ‘raughty gal,’ leading her alley to battle against the Roman ‘slops.’
- 1932, Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm:
- But compared with the heavy, muffling darkness of the night in which the countryside was sunk, the lights looked positively rorty
- 1972, Private Eye, numbers 263-288:
- Unsuitable for family motorists. Only Custom Car gives you the real dirt on the fastest, the loudest, the rortiest, ....
- 1996 August 3, “From ragtops to riches Compact SLK doesn't leave out...”, in Toronto Star:
- If it isn't ultimately as keen-edged and involving as some of its rortier forebears, the SLK makes a great deal more sense for the '90s.
- 2007 May 31, “Lotus 2-Eleven - Road Test First Drive”, in Autocar:
- Any speed any gear it doesn't matter. The 2Eleven's got an enormous powerband huge performance and the rortiest exhaust I've heard in an Elise-based car