Rickroll

verb

Rick·​roll ˈrik-ˌrōl 

variants or rickroll

Rickrolled or rickrolled; Rickrolling or rickrolling; Rickrolls or rickrolls

transitive verb

: to trick (someone) into hearing the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by English singer Rick Astley

… there's a hidden link that promises to take guests to the company's research via a white paper. Click it, however, and you will be Rickrolled.

—Todd Martens

A friend of mine was the first person to "Rickroll" me. I was on holiday on the Amalfi coast and I got an email with a link in it. … Then, boom! The video for Never Gonna Give You Up came on.

—Harriet Gibsone

In 2009, some M.I.T. students plastered the first seven notes of the chorus on the dome of the engineering library, thus rickrolling anyone in Cambridge who could read music.

—Michael Schulman

broadly : to play the song "Never Gonna Give You Up" for (someone)

… showed up in a pickup and "Rickrolled" the protestors in person by blasting the Rick Astley '80s hit "Never Gonna Give You Up" from the speakers …

—Lisa Respers France

Rickroll noun

or rickroll

plural Rickrolls or rickrolls

… a survey found over 18 million Americans had fallen for a Rickroll.

—Mark Blunden et al.

Rickrolling noun

or rickrolling

… Never Gonna Give You Up … gained new prominence 20 years after its initial release thanks to rickrolling, a phenomenon in which internet users troll each other by sending covert links to the song's music video.

—Shaad D'Souza

Word History

Etymology

Rick Astley born 1966 British singer + roll in duckrolling, an earlier Internet bait-and-switch prank that redirected one to an image of a duck with superimposed auto tires (an image that had resulted ultimately from a word filter replacing egg in eggroll with duck)

First Known Use

2007, in the meaning defined above