1894 Brewer’s / R / Roaring Boys or Roarers
The riotous blades of Ben Jonson’s time, whose delight it was to annoy quiet folk. At one time their pranks in London were carried to an alarming extent.
“And bid them think on Jones amidst this glee,
In hope to get such roaring boys as he.”
Legend of Captain Jones (1659).
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.