Steamroller

//ˈstimˌroʊlɚ// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A steam-powered heavy road roller. historical
  2. 2
    vehicle equipped with heavy wide smooth rollers for compacting roads and pavements wordnet
  3. 3
    Any heavy road roller. broadly, informal
  4. 4
    a massive inexorable force that seems to crush everything in its way wordnet
  5. 5
    Any seemingly irresistible force. figuratively

    "Well, I'm a steamroller, babe / I'm bound to roll all over you"

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A pipe, used for smoking cannabis, open at both ends and having a bowl near one end. slang

    "It's more about him testing his wares. He rolls joints. He doesn't own a bong, hookah, smoking pipe, chillum, vaporizer, scale, dugout system, grinder, or steamroller."

Verb
  1. 1
    To level a road using a steamroller. transitive
  2. 2
    make level or flat with a steamroller wordnet
  3. 3
    To proceed ruthlessly against all opposition as if with an overwhelming force. figuratively, transitive
  4. 4
    overwhelm by using great force wordnet
  5. 5
    crush with a steamroller as if to level wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    proceed with great force wordnet
  2. 7
    bring to a specified state by overwhelming force or pressure wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
steamrollsteamrollalignbeatbeat downbig battalions

Example

More examples

"Horses used to pull road-rollers, but the steamroller arrived with the invention of the steam engine."

Etymology

From steam + roller.

Related phrases

Russian steamrollerroad rollersteam enginesteam locomotivesteam powersteam shovelsteam tractor

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.