1805 I. D'Israeli Flim-flams! III. xlviii. 195 My Uncle often spoilt the Doctor's dinner by his severe roystering.

1850 ‘E. Warburton’ Reginald Hastings II. 49 The..Lieutenant of the Tower will soon arrive, and if thou art not found in thine own cell, we shall have pretty roysterings.

1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 319 He keeps steadily at it in his way, reserving his roysterings until he is settled in life.

1915 J. P. Baxter Greatest of Lit. Probl. iv. 150 What about that last roystering from which he contracted a ‘feavour’ which caused his death?

1928 Amer. Mercury Oct. 173/1 These bars are centers of roistering that frequently breaks over into open brawling.

1999 Vision Newspaper (Univ. York) 8 Mar. 15/1 Behaviour that pushes the bounds of roistering has in the past been punished with expulsion.

1613 G. Wither Abuses Stript ii. i. sig. N8 Then hauing kist their Hostesse ouernight, To bed againe these roystering yongsters went, Forgetting whereto they before were bent.

1649 A. Coppe Fiery Flying Roll vi. 15 My most Excellent Majesty..charged 100. of Coaches,..and many notorious, deboist, swearing, roystering roaring Cavalliers (so called).

1725 J. Swift Wood the Iron-monger in Wks. (1735) II. 363 Salmoneus..Among a Crew of royst'ring Fellows Would sit whole Ev'nings at the Ale-house.

1758 tr. Voltaire Maid of Orleans I. xii. 209 Denis slid down post from Paradise, but not mounted as usual on his ray of light, fearing lest its luminous track should discover him to roystering George.

1824 W. Irving Tales of Traveller I. 45 A roystering country squire of the neighbourhood.

1851 F. Palgrave Hist. Normandy & Eng. I. 486 The roistering Danish men were living at free quarters in the monastery.

1883 R. Gower My Reminisc. II. 119 I found the only inn full of dirty militia~men and roystering farmers.

1927 V. Sackville-West Let. 10 May in Lett. to V. Woolf (1984) 170 Much as I love Clive (and I have a real affection for the roystering fellow) I prefer being alone with you.

1992 B. Gill Death of Love vii. 101 McKeon was small, wide, drunken, and sly, with quick, beady eyes and the effusive manner of a roistering proletarian.

a1679 R. Boyle Mr. Anthony (1690) v. iii. 48 That dare appear before this Court in Roystring Periwiggs, whose Locks are like the Whore of Babylons.

a1745 J. Swift in Select Coll. Poems (1780) IV. 306 No Muse harmonious entertains Rough, roistering, rustic, roaring strains.

a1797 E. Burke Fourth Let. Peace Regicide Directory France in Writings & Speeches (1991) IX. 108 The unfortunate antiquary..may suffer in the roystering horse-play and practical jokes of the servants' hall.

1820 W. Scott Abbot II. iv. 135 You sit singing your roistering songs about popes and pagans.

1879 J. McCarthy Hist. our Own Times II. xxix. 403 The roystering adventures of Light Dragoons.

1898 J. E. C. Bodley France II. iv. viii. 443 Those amazing trials..which the whole community seems to enjoy as a roistering farce.

a1935 E. A. Robinson Coll. Poems (1975) 14 Then off they flew on their roystering way.

2000 G. H. Bell-Villada Borges & his Fiction (rev. ed.) iv. 71 The setting is a dance hall, where a roistering party is shaken up by the ominous arrival of Francisco (‘the Butcher’) Real.