Meaning of rickroll | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".
   transitive
2. Alternative letter-case form of rickroll.
   alt-of
3. To surprise or trick (someone) into hearing this song.
   broadly, transitive
4. To cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method, such as through steganography, sheet music, or by inserting the lyrics into an unrelated context.
   broadly, transitive

Examples

“I try not to get rickrolled by sketchy YouTube links, but sometimes you let your guard down.”

“YouTube ‘Rickrolls’ Everyone [title] […] Let the Internet pranking begin! YouTube, capitalizing on the resurgence of a popular meme, has booby-trapped each of the “featured videos” on its homepage. Click on any of the showcased clips and you’ll be taken instead to a cheesy video of pop singer Rick Astley singing his late-’80s hit song, “Never Gonna Give You Up.””

“Once you start rickrolling people, and more importantly get a reputation for it, you're heading towards being the Zimbabwean dollar in the link economy: it doesn't matter how many you offer, people just aren't going to buy them.”

“Despite its name, there is one thing the Vote Leave campaign should not have left for so long: registering a domain name. The delay by the anti-EU organisation meant that up to 100,000 people who tried to access voteleave.com, co.uk or .net were rickrolled – redirected to a YouTube clip of Rick Astley's 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up. So far, so internet.”

“You send a Web link to someone, promising something exciting or compelling ("Is this you!?")—but the link actually takes your victim to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's 1987 music video, "Never Gonna Give You Up." That's it. That's the joke. Ha! You've been Rickrolled!”

“The DJ rickrolled the whole audience by suddenly playing Rick Astley’s hit song.”

“With a single tap on its screen, the device can take over any one of the millions of televisions connected to a Google Chromecast digital media player that happens to be within Wi-Fi range and force it to play Astley's canonical “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video—or any other equally annoying or embarrassing YouTube clip of the prankster’s choosing. […] But [Dan] Petro nonetheless imagines a rickmote-wielding hacker moving slowly through around a dense residential area and wirelessly rickrolling one hapless Chromecast owner after another.”

“In 2008, Astley proved he was a good sport about the joke, interrupting a song on the float for "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" to Rickroll the parade.”

“She paused, blinked, then looked at me. "Did you Rick-Roll me?"”

“He turned on the radio. An oldies station from Phoenix was in the middle of playing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. / “Oh my God!” Harlowe screamed and laughed. “Did Phoenix just ‘Rick Roll’ us?””

“Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has "Rickrolled" an audience, all in the name of climate activism. Thunberg danced to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on Saturday, in front of a crowd at Climate Live, a youth-led concert for climate action.”

“She inserted the lyrics of “Never Gonna Give You Up” into her speech so casually that most listeners didn’t even realize they’d been rickrolled.”

“For their latest hack, students decided to RickRoll the Dome in the nerdiest way possible—by wrapping the first eight notes of the now infamous pop song around it's exterior.”

“Yesterday, Korva pointed to an amusing video of lawmakers Rickrolling the Oregon State House. […] So what Oregon lawmakers did was include snippets of the song's lyrics into their speeches on the House floor and then stich it together to make the tune.”

“Sairam Gudiseva’s boast on Twitter that he had ‘Rick Rolled my physics teacher …’', posting an accompanying photograph of his essay with the verse from the 1987 hit ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ written with the first word on every line.”

“Specifically, one passage from [Melania] Trump's inspiring address bears a striking resemblance to Astley's song, which had led to accusations that the Trump campaign may be "Rick-rolling" the electorate.”

“In 2008, Astley proved he was a good sport about the joke, interrupting a song on the float for "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" to Rickroll the parade.”

“You send a Web link to someone, promising something exciting or compelling ("Is this you!?")—but the link actually takes your victim to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's 1987 music video, "Never Gonna Give You Up." That's it. That's the joke. Ha! You've been Rickrolled!”

“Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has "Rickrolled" an audience, all in the name of climate activism. Thunberg danced to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" on Saturday, in front of a crowd at Climate Live, a youth-led concert for climate action.”

CEFR level