/ˈɹəʊvə(ɹ)/, /ˈɹoʊvɚ/
OriginFrom Middle English roven (“to wander, to shoot an arrow randomly”) + -er.
- plural-normallyA randomly selected target.
“"By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and Andrew Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of the German. Mon Dieu! what men they were! Take them how you would, at long butts or sho”
- One who roves, a wanderer, a nomad.
“But these islands, undisturbed for years, relapsed into their previous obscurity; and it is only recently that anything has been known concerning them. Once in the course of a half century, to be sure”
“I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
A”
- A vagabond, a tramp, an unsteady, restless person, one who by habit doesn't settle down or marry.
“She is a rover and dislikes any sort of ties, physical or emotional.”
“Give him the word, that I'm not a rover, and tell him that his lonely days are over.”
- A vehicle for exploring extraterrestrial bodies.
“September 19, 2005, Dave Lane, Mars Exploration Rover "OPPORTUNITY"
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is currently traveling southward over a pavement of outcrop dubbed the "Erebus Highway." "”
- A remotely-operated vehicle.
- A position that is one of three of a team's followers, who follow the ball around the ground. Formerly a position for short players, rovers in professional leagues are frequently over 183 cm (6').
- A defensive back position whose coverage responsibilities are a hybrid of those of a cornerback, safety and linebacker.
“I went to Coach Beamer and, because we had a lot of outside linebackers, ask him if I could play rover.”
- A ball which has passed through all the hoops and would go out if it hit the stake but is continued in play; also, the player of such a ball.
- The tenth defensive player in slow-pitch softball.
- obsoleteA sort of arrow.
“All sorts, flights, rovers, and butt shafts.”
- A pirate.
“Diogenes will deſpiſe thee for all that, who being expoſed and offered to ſale by the rovers and theeves that tooke him, cried and proclaimed himſelfe aloud: Who will buy a maſter who?”
- A pirate ship.
“The first was this: our ship making her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish rover of Sallee,”
- Someone connected with any number of teams called the Rovers, as a fan, player, coach etc.
- someone connected with Blackburn Rovers FC, as a fan, player, coach etc.
- A member of the senior section of the Boy Scout movement catering for men of age 18 upwards, now disbanded.
- A stereotypical given name for a dog.
“Thor jumped off the sledge to undo the gate, and as we merrily drove up to the door we were met by the boisterous welcome of old Rover, who in his frantic joy at hearing my voice almost broke his chai”
- A former make of a British motorcar.
Formsrovers(plural) · Rovers(plural)