Adjacent Words

Rove definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ROVE, v.i. [L. rapio.]
To wander; to ramble; to range; to go, move or pass without certain direction in any manner, by walking, riding, flying or otherwise.
For who has power to walk, has power to rove.
ROVE, v.t. To wander over; as roving a field; roving the town. This is an elliptical form of expression, for roving over, through or about the town.
ROVE, v.t. To draw a thread, string or cord through an eye or aperture.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment; "The gypsies roamed the woods"; "roving vagabonds"; "the wandering Jew"; "The cattle roam across the prairie"; "the laborers drift from one town to the next"; "They rolled from town to town" [syn: roll, wander, swan, stray, tramp, roam, cast, ramble, rove, range, drift, vagabond]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (roved; roving) Etymology: earlier, to shoot at random, wander, of unknown origin Date: 1536 intransitive verb to move aimlessly ; roam transitive verb to wander through or over Synonyms: see wander II. noun Date: 1606 an act or instance of wandering III. past and past participle of reeve IV. transitive verb (roved; roving) Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1789 to join (textile fibers) with a slight twist and draw out into roving V. noun Date: 1789 roving

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. v. & n. --v. 1 intr. wander without a settled destination, roam, ramble. 2 intr. (of eyes) look in changing directions. 3 tr. wander over or through. --n. an act of roving (on the rove). Phrases and idioms: rove-beetle any long-bodied beetle of the family Staphylinidae, usu. found in decaying animal and vegetable matter. roving commission authority given to a person or persons conducting an inquiry to travel as may be necessary. roving eye a tendency to ogle or towards infidelity. Etymology: ME, orig. a term in archery = shoot at a casual mark with the range not determined, perh. f. dial. rave stray, prob. of Scand. orig. 2. past of REEVE(2). 3. n. & v. --n. a sliver of cotton, wool, etc., drawn out and slightly twisted. --v.tr. form into roves. Etymology: 18th c.: orig. unkn. 4. n. a small metal plate or ring for a rivet to pass through and be clenched over, esp. in boat-building. Etymology: ON ró, with excrescent v

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rove Rove (r[=o]v), n. 1. A copper washer upon which the end of a nail is clinched in boat building. 2. A roll or sliver of wool or cotton drawn out and slighty twisted, preparatory to further process; a roving.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rove Rove, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Roved; p. pr. & vb. n. Roving.] [Cf. D. rooven to rob; akin to E. reave. See Reave, Rob.] 1. To practice robbery on the seas; to wander about on the seas in piracy. [Obs.] --Hakluyt. 2. Hence, to wander; to ramble; to rauge; to go, move, or pass without certain direction in any manner, by sailing, walking, riding, flying, or otherwise. For who has power to walk has power to rove. --Arbuthnot. 3. (Archery) To shoot at rovers; hence, to shoot at an angle of elevation, not at point-blank (rovers usually being beyond the point-blank range). Fair Venus' son, that with thy cruel dart At that good knight so cunningly didst rove. --Spenser. Syn: To wander; roam; range; ramble stroll.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rove Rove (r[=o]v), v. t. [perhaps fr. or akin to reeve.] 1. To draw through an eye or aperture. 2. To draw out into flakes; to card, as wool. --Jamieson. 3. To twist slightly; to bring together, as slivers of wool or cotton, and twist slightly before spinning.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rove Rove, v. t. 1. To wander over or through. Roving the field, I chanced A goodly tree far distant to behold. --milton. 2. To plow into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rove Rove, n. The act of wandering; a ramble. In thy nocturnal rove one moment halt. --Young. Rove beetle (Zo["o]l.), any one of numerous species of beetles of the family Staphylinid[ae], having short elytra beneath which the wings are folded transversely. They are rapid runners, and seldom fly.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Reeve Reeve, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rove (r?v); p. pr. & vb. n. Reeving.] [Cf. D. reven. See Reef, n. & v. t.] (Naut.) To pass, as the end of a pope, through any hole in a block, thimble, cleat, ringbolt, cringle, or the like.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(roves, roving, roved) 1. If someone roves about an area or roves an area, they wander around it. (LITERARY) ...roving about the town in the dead of night and seeing something peculiar... She became a photographer, roving the world with her camera in her hand. = roam VERB: V prep/adv, V n 2. see also roving

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. n. Roam, ramble, stroll, range, wander, stray, straggle.

Moby Thesaurus

Wanderjahr, afoot and lighthearted, bat around, bum, bumming, count ties, discursion, divagate, divagation, drift, drifting, err, errantry, excurse, flit, flitting, gad, gad about, gadding, gallivant, go about, go adrift, go astray, go the rounds, hit the road, hit the trail, hobo, hoboism, itineracy, itinerancy, jaunt, knock about, knock around, meander, mooch, nomadism, nomadize, peregrinate, peregrination, pererrate, pererration, prowl, ramble, rambling, range, roam, roaming, roving, run about, saunter, snake, straggle, stray, straying, stroll, traipse, traipsing, tramp, twist, twist and turn, vagabond, vagabondage, vagabondia, vagabondism, vagabondize, vagrancy, walk the tracks, wander, wandering, wanderlust, wayfare, wayfaring, wind