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rover

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Rover, ROVer, rôver, and røver

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English roven (“to wander, to shoot an arrow randomly”) +‎ -er.

Noun

rover (plural rovers)

  1. (archery, usually in the plural) A randomly selected target.
    • 1890, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 22, in The White Company‎:
      "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 short, hoyles, rounds, or rovers, better bowmen never twirled a shaft over their thumb-nails.
  2. One who roves, a wanderer, a nomad.
    • 1846, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Typee‎:
      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, some adventurous rover would break in upon their peaceful repose. and astonished at the unusual scene, would be almost tempted to claim the merit of a new discovery.
    • 1902, John Masefield, Sea Fever:
      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,
      And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
  3. 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.
    • 1954, Pat Ballard, “Mr. Sandman”:
      Give him the word, that I'm not a rover, and tell him that his lonely days are over.
  4. 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." "Erebus Crater," the rover's next target, lies less than 100 meters (328 feet) south of its current position
  5. A remotely-operated vehicle.
    Synonym: ROV
  6. (Australian Rules football) 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').
  7. (American football) A defensive back position whose coverage responsibilities are a hybrid of those of a cornerback, safety and linebacker.
    • 2011, Frank Beamer, Always a Hokie: Players, Coaches, and Fans Share Their Passion for Virginia Tech Football‎:
      I went to Coach Beamer and, because we had a lot of outside linebackers, ask him if I could play rover.
  8. (croquet) 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.
  9. (baseball) The tenth defensive player in slow-pitch softball.
  10. (obsolete) A sort of arrow.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch roven (“to rob”). Cognate with Danish and Norwegian røver (“robber, thief, highwayman, brigand”), Swedish rövare, German Räuber. Compare the native English word reaver, which is ultimately the same composition.

Noun

rover (plural rovers)

  1. A pirate.
  2. A pirate ship.
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Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch rôvere. Equivalent to roven +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

Noun

rover m (plural rovers, diminutive rovertje n)

  1. robber

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Afrikaans: rower

Anagrams

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

First known attestation 881 in The Sequence of Saint Eulalia. From Latin rogāre. The forms in -uis- was very likely due to analogy with forms of pooir.

Verb

rover

  1. to order (give an order)

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. Some verb forms containing -is(s-) might have been contaminated by pooir (“to be able”). Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of rover (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)
More information simple, compound ...
  • rovaison

Descendants

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