Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of 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.
\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.
\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.
\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.
\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.