French roué (first half of the 18th cent. with reference to the companions of Philippe II, Duke of Orleans (Regent of France 1715–23), who were said to deserve this punishment; 1780 in more general use; earlier in sense ‘person who has been broken on the wheel’ (1648)), use as noun of past participle of rouer to break on the wheel (early 14th cent. in Middle French) < roue wheel (see row n.3).
A debauched or dissolute man, typically one who is wealthy or aristocratic, and (now) esp. an elderly one; a rake, a libertine, a playboy. (OED)
"He wanders the corridors of a vast sterile mansion or two, feeling 'like a stonyhearted old roué embarrassingly shackled to a lovesick youth,' and signals to successive barmen 'to bring the same again.'"
- Joanna Kavenna, "Pseudonymously Yours: The strange case of Benjamin Black", 11 & 18 July 2011 The New Yorker, quoting Benjamin Black, A Death in Summer
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