Adjacent Words

rowlock definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a holder attached to the gunwale of a boat that holds the oar in place and acts as a fulcrum for rowing [syn: peg, pin, thole, tholepin, rowlock, oarlock]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: probably by alteration Date: circa 1750 chiefly British oarlock

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a device on a boat's gunwale, esp. a pair of thole-pins, serving as a fulcrum for an oar and keeping it in place. Etymology: alt. of earlier OARLOCK, after ROW(2)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rowlock Row"lock (? colloq. ?), n. [For oarlock; AS. [hand]rloc, where the second part is skin to G. loch a hole, E. lock a fastening. See Oar, and Lock.] (Naut.) A contrivance or arrangement serving as a fulcrum for an oar in rowing. It consists sometimes of a notch in the gunwale of a boat, sometimes of a pair of pins between which the oar rests on the edge of the gunwale, sometimes of a single pin passing through the oar, or of a metal fork or stirrup pivoted in the gunwale and suporting the oar.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(rowlocks) The rowlocks on a rowing boat are the U-shaped pieces of metal that keep the oars in position while you move them backwards and forwards. (BRIT; in AM, use oarlock) N-COUNT: usu pl