nroff

English

Etymology

Name of the program, short for new roff; an earlier similar program was called roff, a shortening of runoff.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛnɹɒf/

Verb

nroff (third-person singular simple present nroffs, present participle nroffing, simple past and past participle nroffed)

1. (transitive, computing) To format (text) using the nroff program, which produces output suitable for simple fixed-width printers and terminal windows.
   • 1985, Eric Foxley, UNIX for super-users, page 158:

     The user either selects a new filename, edits the default file, nroffs it to the screen, or to a printer, or logs out.

   • 1991, Computer Language, volume 8, page 18:

     You could contrive macro sets that nroffed a document onto a printer […]