If you say that someone is playing Russian roulette, or that what they are doing is like playing Russian roulette, you mean that what they are doing is very dangerous because it involves unpredictable risks.
You are playing Russian roulette every time you have unprotected sex.
2. uncountable noun
If someone plays Russian roulette, they fire a gun with only one bullet at their head without knowing whether it will shoot them.
Russian roulette in British English
noun
1.
a game of chance in which each player in turn spins the cylinder of a revolver loaded with only one cartridge and presses the trigger with the barrel against his or her own head
2.
any act which, if repeated several times, is likely to have disastrous consequences
Russian roulette in American English
US
1.
a deadly game of chance in which a person spins the cylinder of a revolver holding only one bullet, aims the gun at his or her head, and pulls the trigger
2.
any activity potentially destructive to its participants
Examples of 'Russian roulette' in a sentence
Russian roulette
Flodge might have been playing Russian roulette with a cyanide pill, but he didn't show any sign of it that I could see.