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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rove.

To shoot with arrows (at).

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɹəʊv/Received-Pronunciation/ɹoʊv/General-American
  1. To shoot with arrows (at).

    intransitive · obsolete
  2. To roam, or wander about at random, especially over a wide area.

    intransitive
  3. To roam or wander through.

    transitive
  4. To card wool or other fibres.

    transitive
  5. To twist slightly; to bring together, as slivers of wool or cotton, and twist slightly before spinning.

  6. To draw through an eye or aperture.

  7. To plough into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together.

  8. To practice robbery on the seas; to voyage about on the seas as a pirate.

Where this word comes from

Probably from Middle English *roven, a Midlands variant of Northern Middle English raven (“to wander”), from Old Norse ráfa (“to rove; stray about”). Cognate with Icelandic ráfa (“to wander”), Scots rave (“to wander; stray; roam”).

noun/ɹəʊv/Received-Pronunciation/ɹoʊv/General-American
  1. A copper washer upon which the end of a nail is clinched in boatbuilding.

  2. A roll or sliver of wool or cotton drawn out and lightly twisted, preparatory to further processing; a roving.

  3. The act of wandering; a ramble.

Where this word comes from

Probably from Middle English *roven, a Midlands variant of Northern Middle English raven (“to wander”), from Old Norse ráfa (“to rove; stray about”). Cognate with Icelandic ráfa (“to wander”), Scots rave (“to wander; stray; roam”).

verb/ɹəʊv/Received-Pronunciation/ɹoʊv/General-American
  1. simple past of rive

    form-of · past
  2. simple past of reeve

    form-of · past
Where this word comes from

Inflected forms.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.